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£(brarjp  of ^1k  t^heologicai  ^tminavy 

PRINCETON    •   NEW  JERSEY 


PRESENTED  BY 

Kenneth  L.  Maxwell 


BX  6495  .J9  S4  1917 

Sears,  Charles  Hatch,  1870- 

1943. 
Edward  Judson,  interpreter 


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EDWARD  JUDSON 
INTERPRETER  OF  GOD 


EDWARD  jriiSOX 

IN     PRIME    OF    LIFE 


EDWARD  JUDSON 


INTERPRETER  OF  GOD 


'^  "  '"'*««55 


NOV    81974 


By  CHARLES  HATCH  SEARS,  M-  A.,  B.  D. 

Author  of  "  The  Redemption  of  the  City  " 


itpi 


THE  GRIFFITH  AND  ROWLAND  PRESS 

PHILADELPHIA 
BOSTON  CHICAGO  ST.  LOUIS 

LOS  ANGELES  TORONTO,  CAN. 


Copyright  191 7  by 
GUY  C.  LAMSON,  Secretary 

Published  April,  1917 


PREFACE 

PERSONi\LiTY,  the  richest  gift  of  divine  beneficence,  can- 
not be  described,  it  can  only  be  felt.  Could  one  wha  had 
felt  the  power  of  the  personality  of  Edward  Judson, 
and  had  seen  the  beauty  of  his  character,  do  other  than 
hesitate  to  tell  the  story  of  his  life? 

Attracted  to  Xew  York  by  him,  as  a  student  working 
for  six  years  under  his  direction  at  the  Memorial  Bap- 
tist Church,  and  for  ten  years  associated  with  him  in 
denominational  undertakings,  and  having  had  the  privi- 
lege of  a  close  personal  relationship,  I  have  had  somewhat 
exceptional  opportunity  to  know  his  ideals,  and  to  see 
something  of  his  bitter  struggles  "  to  freeze  his  thoughts 
into  metal."  A  world  which  is  never  too  kindly  to  the 
ideal  was  none  too  responsive  to  the  touch  of  this  idealist ; 
and  Edward  Judson  was  an  artist,  and  would  give  his 
life  rather  than  cheapen  his  art. 

One  has  said  of  him  that,  "  chivalrous  and  saintly,  too 
fine-grained  for  the  slums,  he  hacked  away  at  the  giant 
city  even  with  his  tempered  razor,  confident  that  in  time 
God  would  bring  down  the  tree."  This  beautiful  tribute 
to  his  art  and  to  his  faith  falls  short  of  appreciating  the 
very  practical  character  of  his  life  and  work.  He  must 
not  be  presented  as  an  idealist  only,  but  as  a  student  of 
affairs,  and  as  the  founder  of  an  institution  whose  in- 
fluence has  been  far-reaching. 

V 


Doctor  Judson's  daughters  have  requested  that  his  life 
be  treated  in  its  pubhc  relationships,  rather  than  in  its 
more  intimate  personal  relations.  I  am  indebted  to  them 
for  the  use  of  Doctor  Judson's  files,  from  which  the 
material  of  the  book  has  been  largely  drawn ;  I  am  grate- 
ful also  for  the  assistance  of  his  faithful  and  long-time 
secretary,  Dr.  Frederick  A.  Vanderburgh,  and  for  the 
kindly  criticism  of  Dean  Shailer  Mathews,  Dr.  William 
M.  Lawrence,  and  the  Rev.  C.  Wallace  Petty. 

New  York  City.  October,  1916.  ChARLES  HaTCH    SeARS. 


INTRODUCTION 


The  life  of  a  great  man  is  a  public  heritage.  However 
much  such  a  life  may  have  been  built  into  institutions,  its 
individual  qualities  are  too  dynamic  to  be  lost.  Souls 
always  possess  value  not  embodied  in  their  corporate 
influence.  Jesus  is  more  than  the  church,  Bernard  of 
Clairvaux  speaks  through  other  channels  than  his  frater- 
nity. 

All  this  is  true  of  Edward  Judson.  Those  of  us  who 
knew  him  honored  him  for  his  share  in  adjusting  the  de- 
nomination and  a  church  to  new  conditions,  but  we  drew 
faith  from  himself  as  a  friend.  Who  can  ever  forget 
his  smile  and  the  exquisite  camaraderie  which  made 
friendship  more  than  a  recognition  of  his  leadership.  The 
buoyancy  of  his  spirit  lifted  us  even  when  he  himself 
must  have  been  struggling  with  discouragement.  Often, 
I  fear,  we  failed  to  let  him  see  how  much  he  meant  to 
us,  and  assumed  too  easily  that  he  knew  the  warmth 
of  our  affection.  But  we  have  the  heritage  of  his  choice 
companionship. 

The  denomination  to  which  Doctor  Judson  belonged  is 
under  great  obligation  to  him  for  many  services,  but  none 
of  these  to  my  mind  quite  equals  his  share  in  the  trans- 
formation of  what  might  have  become  mere  sectarian- 
ism into  an  enthusiasm  for  the  kingdom  of  God.  He 
brought  to  the  church  life  an  extraordinary  combination 
of  spiritual  and  social  vision.  He  dared  believe  that 
evangelicalism  could  be  beautiful  and  humanitarian  with- 
out losing  its  trust  in  God.  A  gentleman  unafraid  in  any 
situation,  he  gave  to  everything  he  undertook  a  touch 

vii 


vni  INTRODUCTION 

of  chivalry  that  was  none  the  less  human  because  it  was 
born  of  an  exquisite  sense  of  beauty  and  divine  love. 

Mr.  Sears'  volume  will  help  those  of  us  who  knew 
him  to  revive  this  personal  influence,  and  it  will  serve  to 
extend  the  range  of  those  who  may  know  him  more  inti- 
mately than  could  have  been  their  fortune  while  he  lived. 
With  all  its  respect  for  the  sanctities  of  private  life,  it 
brings  its  reader  face  to  face  with  one  who  was  a  prince 
among  friends  as  well  as  a  leader  in  good  works. 

Shailer  Mathews. 


CONTENTS 

Page 

I.  Early  Life i 

II.  Scholar,  Teacher,  and  Educator 2^^ 

III.  Pastor  and  Preacher 44 

IV.  Author  7^ 

V.  A  Social  Pioneer 84 

VI.  The  Social  Prophet no 

VII.  Interpreter  of  God 124 


IX 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Page 

Edward  Judson  in  prune  of  life Frontispiece 

Mrs.  Emily  C.  Judson  and  Children 14 

Mrs.  Judson's  Home 20 

Edward  Judson,  pastor  of  North  Orange  Church  . .  44 

Church  Vacation  School  Group 82 

Ice-water  Fountain  at  corner  of  church 94 

Daily  Kindergarten,  one  of  the  first  church  kinder- 
gartens established  in  Neiv  York 98 

Open-ctir  Italian  Service  at  corner  of  church 104 

Judson  Memorial  Church  through  Washington  Arch  108 

Church  Dispensary — Doctor  hivin  at  the  right.    One 

of  the  first  church  dispensaries  in  Neiv  York  . .  116 

Memorial  Children's  Home  122 

Edward  Judson   132 

The  Judson  Memorial 146 


EDWARD  JUDSON 

INTERPRETER  OF  GOD 


EARLY    LIFE 

IN  ancient  days  the  Oriental  numbered  his  sheep  and 
counted  his  garments,  for  he  thought  that  in  them 
was  his  wealth.  In  modern  days  the  Occidental  regis- 
ters his  houses  and  lands  and  lists  his  stocks  and  bonds, 
thinking  that  in  them  is  his  wealth.  The  modern  eugenist 
says  that  in  its  child  life  is  the  nation's  wealth.  Ruskin, 
with  deeper  insight,  declared  "  there  is  no  wealth  but 
life."  Wealth  consists  not  of  houses  and  lands,  not  of 
stocks  and  bonds,  not  of  gold  and  silver,  nor  indeed  of 
undeveloped  child  life;  but  the  greatest  wealth  is  de- 
veloped personality.  Wealth  is  personality — the  ultimate 
product. 

As  we  see  over  the  crimson-tinted  Puget  Sound  the 
snow-capped  Olympic  Range  standing  against  the  golden 
gateway  of  the  setting  sun,  or  from  Council  Crest  that 
trinity  of  mountain  peaks — Ranier,  Hood,  and  Baker — 
each  piercing  the  clouds  with  its  snow-capped  peak, 
so  some  men  stand  out  against  the  background  of  the 
mass  of  men.  Such  a  man  was  Edward  Judson,  a 
developed  personality — the  flower  of  generations  of  Chris- 
tian culture. 

Edward  Judson  was  the  product  of  generations  of 
sturdy   stock.      We   may  trace   the    family   back   seven 

I 


2  EDWARD   JUDSON,    INTERPRETER   OF    GOD 

generations,  to  the  time  when  William,  the  sire  of  the  Jud- 
sons  in  America,  came  from  Yorkshire,  England,  and  with 
him  his  three  sons,  Joseph,  Jeremiah,  and  Joshua,  though 
Doctor  Wayland,  Adoniram  Judson's  biographer,  seems 
to  express  some  doubt  as  to  the  historical  accuracy  of 
this  lineage.  John,  one  of  the  eleven  children  of  Joseph, 
lived  at  Concord  and  at  Stratford.  Jonathan,  son  of 
John  Judson,  the  great-great-grandfather  of  Edward, 
was  born  in  December,  1684.  His  son  Elnathan,  great- 
grandfather of  Edward,  was  born  on  May  8,  1712. 
Adoniram,  the  father  of  Adoniram  Judson  the  mission- 
ary, born  in  June,  1752,  proved  himself  a  man  of  striking 
virility.  Yale  conferred  upon  him  the  degree  of  bachelor 
of  arts  in  1775,  and  of  master  of  arts  in  1778.  He  died 
in  November,  1826. 

Characteristics  of  Adoniram  Judson 

Adoniram  Judson,  the  father  of  Edward,  was  born 
in  Maiden,  ]\Iassachusetts,  on  August  9,  1788.  His  ex- 
traordinary mental  ability  was  evident  while  he  was 
yet  a  very  young  child.  When  his  father  returned  from 
a  journey,  his  son  of  three  years  surprised  him  by  reading 
a  whole  chapter  from  the  Bible.  As  a  boy  he  was  of  an 
inquisitive,  experimental  nature.  At  Brown  University, 
which  he  entered  at  sixteen  years  of  age,  he  won  the 
hearty  approbation  of  the  president,  who  wrote  to  his 
father,  commending  the  fine  work  of  the  son. 

The  Burmese  Bible,  translated  by  Adoniram  Judson,  is 
widely  recognized  as  the  great  memorial  of  his  life.  This 
work  particularly  shows  his  notable  linguistic  and  literary 
ability.  The  Burmese  Bible  occupies  a  place  similar 
to  that  of  the  King  James  version  in  English  literature. 
The  Burmese  dictionary,  to  which  he  gave  the  last  years 
oi  his  life,  while  not  entirely  completed  by  him,  has 
proved  to  be  an  equally  enduring  monument. 


EARLY   LIFE 


His  pedagogical  ability  was  shown  in  his  early  teaching 
experience,  but  more  in  his  training  the  young  American 
missionaries  and  the  native  converts  who  were  to  become 
the  chief  reliance  of  the  church  in  evangelizing  Burma. 

The  prodigious  amount  of  work  which  he  accomplished 
in  later  life  was  largely  due  to  his  punctilious  care  of  his 
health.  One  of  his  maxims  was  "  Beware  of  that  indo- 
lence which  leads  to  neglect  of  bodily  exercise."  About 
the  only  form  of  exercise  which  he  found  practicable 
was  walking.  Mrs.  Emily  C.  Judson,  in  one  of  her 
letters,  says  of  her  husband : 

The  good  man  works  like  a  galley-slave;  and  really  it  quite 
distresses  me  sometimes,  but  he  seems  to  get  fat  on  it,  so  I  try 
not  to  worry.  He  walks,  or  rather  runs,  like  a  boy  over  the 
hills,  a  mile  or  two  ever>'  morning.  .  .  It  is  this  walking  which 
is  keeping  him  out  of  the  grave. 

To  him  care  of  his  body  meant  not  merely  attention  to 
exercise,  but  scrupulous  cleanliness  and  careful  diet. 

There  was  in  his  make-up  a  delicate  strain  of  humor 
which  tended  to  soften  his  rather  too  rigid  nature  and  to 
lighten  the  black  clouds  which  settled  all  too  frequently 
about  him.  This  quality  removed  the  tension  from  his 
life.  So  we  find  in  his  references  to  his  horrible  prison 
experiences  a  certain  sense  of  grim  humor  in  quoting 
a  remark  of  a  brutal  jailer:  "  My  son,  be  sure  you  have 
never  wrung  a  rag  so  dry  but  another  twist  will  bring 
another  drop."  We  find  him  enjoining  the  young  mis- 
sionaries not  to  be  "  too  ravenous  to  do  good  on  board 
ship." 

In  Edward  Judson's  life  of  his  father  he  refers  to 
him  as  having  the  fresh  heart  of  a  boy  at  the  age  of 
sixty.  He  loved  to  romp  with  his  children,  and  was  char- 
acterized by  his  wife  as  an  adept  at  "  baby  talk."  Emily 
C.  Judson  refers  to  him  as  unconquerably  youthful.  She 
said :  "  He  seems  to  have  caught  the  elixir  that  keeps  the 


4  EDWARD   JUDSON,    INTERPRETER   OF   GOD 

heart  always  young,  to  have  drawn  his  very  life-blood 
from  that  deep  heart  of  existence  which  beats  forever 
like  a  boy."  ("  Life  of  Emily  C.  Judson.") 

He  was  both  systematic  and  persistent,  holding  dog- 
gedly to  a  purpose  to  the  very  end;  indeed,  he  said  of 
himself  that  he  had  "  a  lust  for  finishing."  If  it  is  true, 
as  Edward  Judson  was  wont  to  say,  that  "  It  is  poetry 
to  begin  and  prose  to  continue,"  Adoniram  Judson  found 
poetry,  or  a  touch  of  romance,  in  the  finishing  of  a  task. 

Adoniram  Judson  had  what  we  may  call  a  sense  of 
destiny,  which  impelled  him  to  give  himself  to  the  utter- 
most. He  gave  himself  to  the  mission  cause,  not  for  a 
day,  but  for  a  life.  While  finding  satisfaction  in  the 
study  of  literature,  especially  that  of  the  Burmese  people, 
he  would  not  allow  himself  to  give  his  time  to  literary 
pursuits  that  did  not  directly  relate  to  his  work.  He  as- 
sumed certain  important  responsibilities  from  the  govern- 
ment, but  only  because  they  contributed  to  his  funda- 
mental purpose,  and  then  remitted  to  the  missionary 
society  his  compensation,  amounting  to  5,200  rupees,  or 
about  $2,000.  He  also  turned  over  to  the  missionary 
society  the  avails  of  the  presents  which  had  been  given 
to  him,  amounting  to  2,000  additional  rupees.  At  another 
time  he  voluntarily  surrendered  one-fourth  of  his  salary 
because  he  had  found  that  he  could  live  in  greater  sim- 
plicity without  requiring  the  full  amount.  Even  this  sacri- 
fice did  not  restrain  him  from  ofifering,  under  certain 
conditions,  to  make  a  further  gift  of  one-tenth  of  his 
income.  In  1829  he  gave  to  the  missionary  society  his 
personal  fortune  of  12,000  rupees,  the  avails  of  his 
own  earnings  as  a  teacher  before  he  became  a  missionary, 
and  the  gifts  of  friends  and  relatives  which  he  had  allowed 
to  accumulate  at  interest  for  a  period  of  years.  This 
voluntary  surrender  of  all  personal  funds  grew  out  of 
his  relisfious  faith. 


EARLY    LIFE  5 

Perhaps  it  was  his  complete  devotion  that  led  him 
into  certain  ascetic  practices,  though  this  asceticism  was 
doubtless  prompted  by  his  sorrow  and  loneliness.  During 
those  eight  years  of  solitude  after  the  death  of  Ann 
Hasseltine,  the  first  Mrs.  Judson,  he  showed  very  pro- 
nounced tendencies  toward  asceticism.  In  this  he  did 
violence  to  his  nature,  which  was  perhaps  more  than 
normally  social.  His  intimate  associates  regarded  his 
genial  disposition  as  one  of  his  most  marked  character- 
istics. 

His  nature,  naturally  buoyant  and  hopeful,  asserted 
itself  even  in  the  hour  of  death,  and  to  the  very  end 
he  was  triumphant,  except  when  racked  by  intense  phys- 
ical pain. 

It  is  interesting  to  trace  causes  from  known  effects,  as 
astronomers  discovered  the  new  planet  Uranus  from  the 
influences  which  it  exerted  upon  other  heavenly  bodies. 
We  find  the  outstanding  characteristics  of  the  father 
reproduced  in  the  son,  though  the  father  was  denied  any 
part  in  the  training  of  his  boy  except  during  his  early 
childhood.  Account  for  it  as  we  may,  whether  by  hered- 
itary influences,  by  the  impression  indelibly  stamped  upon 
the  mind  and  heart  of  the  young  boy,  or  by  that  lifelong 
devotion  of  the  son  to  the  memory  of  the  father,  certain 
it  is  that  the  noble  characteristics  of  the  father  found 
their  counterpart  in  the  life  of  the  son. 

Characteristics  of  Sarah  B.  Judson' 

Edward  Judson's  maternal  heritage  was  rich,  though 
he  was  denied  the  mother  care  which  ]\Trs.  Judson  had 
lavished  on  her  older  son,  George  Dana  Boardman.  She 
was  the  daughter  of  Ralph  and  Abiah  Hall,  born  Novem- 
ber 4,  1803,  the  oldest  of  thirteen  children.  Her  ability 
to  read  at  the  age  of  four  was  a  true  indication  of  her 
unusual  intellectual  power.    As  a  child  she  was  serious. 


6  EDWARD  JUDSON,   INTERPRETER   OF  GOD 

too  serious  perhaps.  Denied  the  advantages  of  school 
training  and  forced  to  care  for  her  brothers  and  sisters, 
she  utiHzed  her  leisure  hours  for  serious  study.  In  her 
early  teens  she  studied  such  books  as  Butler's  "  Analogy  " 
and  Paley's  "  Evidences,"  which  were  found  in  the  cur- 
riculum of  every  college  of  that  day.  At  the  same  period 
she  wrote  a  friend: 

Besides,  I  have  been  for  six  weeks  past  employed  with  a 
gentleman,  upon  the  evidences  of  the  soul's  immortality,  inde- 
pendent of  the  Scriptures. 

The  Study  of  the  life  of  Samuel  J.  Mills,  who  was 
associated  with  Adoniram  Judson  at  the  beginning  of  the 
American  enterprise  of  foreign  missions,  was  a  deter- 
mining factor  in  her  life.  On  the  death  of  Coleman, 
which  occurred  in  Burma  just  as  Sarah  Hall  was  emerg- 
ing into  womanhood,  she  wrote  a  poem  which  attracted 
the  attention  of  George  Dana  Boardman,  who  was  look- 
ing forward  to  service  as.  a  missionary  in  Burma.  This 
poem  was  read  by  its  author  at  a  missionary  meeting 
attended  by  Ann  Judson  during  her  only  visit  to  America. 

Sarah  Hall  married  Mr.  Boardman  on  July  4,  1825, 
and  sailed  for  India  on  the  sixteenth  of  July.  This  was 
at  the  period  of  the  Burmese  war,  which  detained  them 
for  some  months  in  India.  We  shall  pass  over  the  events 
of  the  life  of  Mrs.  Boardman  up  to  the  death  of  her 
husband  on  February  11,  1831.  On  April  10,  1834,  she 
was  married  to  Adoniram  Judson,  and  took  up  life  in 
Moulmein. 

As  a  teacher,  her  constructive  work  had  gained 
the  recognition  of  the  British  authorities.  Upon  her 
arrival  at  Moulmein  they  sought  her  service  in  the 
government  schools  of  that  city.  She  felt  compelled  to 
decline  the  offer.  But  the  cooperation  of  the  govern- 
ment in  the  mission  schools  secured  by  Mrs.  Judson  has 


EARLY    LIFE  7 

continued  to  this  day.  She  had  shown  gifts  for  organiza- 
tion in  the  practical  missionary  work  in  which  she  ac- 
tively engaged  after  the  death  of  Doctor  Boardman. 
It  was  as  a  linguist  that  her  most  distinctive  missionary 
work  was  done  after  her  marriage  to  Adoniram  Judson. 
Her  discriminating  knowledge  of  the  Burmese  language 
was  a  delight  to  her  husband,  w4io  was  disposed  to  be 
critical  in  matters  of  language  study.  She  was  not  only 
proficient  in  Burmese,  but  made  a  special  study  of  the 
Peguan  tongue,  that  the  Peguan  people  might  have  tracts 
in  their  own  tongue.  Her  translations  include  the  New 
Testament  and  many  of  Adoniram  Judson's  writings 
in  Pegi-ian ;  the  "  Life  of  Christ,"  the  "  Pilgrim's  Prog- 
ress "  (Vol.  I),  and  many  hymns  in  the  Burmese.  In 
her  struggle  against  ill  health  and  disease  she  showed 
an  unfaltering  will.  Despite  the  handicap  of  a  weakened 
body,  she  accomplished  the  enormous  amoimt  of  work 
which  was  involved  in  the  care  of  her  six  children  and 
in  her  linguistic  and  missionary  activities. 

At  the  time  of  her  death  the  editor  of  the  "  Mother's 
Journal "  said:  "  She  was  of  about  middle  stature,  agree- 
able in  her  personal  appearance,  and  witty  in  her  manner." 
Her  English  friends  described  her  as  the  '"  most  finished 
and  faultless  specimen  of  an  American  woman  that  they 
had  ever  known."  Adoniram  Judson  at  the  time  of  her 
death  wrote  to  a  friend : 

I  exceedingly  regret  that  there  is  no  portrait  of  the  second, 
as  of  the  first  Mrs.  Judson.  Her  soft  blue  eyes,  her  mild  aspect, 
her  lovely  face,  and  elegant  form  have  never  been  delineated 
on  canvas.  They  must  soon  pass  away  from  the  memory,  even 
of  her  children.—"  Life  of  Sarah  B.  Judson,"  page  247. 

It  was  the  feeble  cry  of  a  puny  boy  that  was  raised  in 
a  missionary  compound  in  Moulmein  on  December  27, 
1844 — the  eighth  little  voice  in  that  home,  though  two 
had  already  been  hushed  in  the  eternal  silence. 


8  EDWARD   JUDSON,   INTERPRETER   OF   GOD 

That  "  infant  crying  for  the  hght "  was  heard  in  a 
home  whose  joy  was  clouded  by  sickness  and  impending 
separation.  The  figure  of  grim  death  was  there  and  but 
thinly  veiled.  On  the  twenty-sixth  of  April,  four  months 
later,  the  mother  gave  her  last  caress  to  the  little  infant, 
as,  in  a  vain  search  for  health,  she  set  sail  for  America. 

At  the  Judson  Centennial  in  Boston,  in  1914,  Dr. 
Adoniram  Judson,  brother  of  Edward  Judson,  gave  the 
following  reminiscence  of  the  journey  of  the  father, 
mother,  and  three  older  children  through  the  Indian 
Ocean.  The  experience  left  an  impression  on  his  re- 
sponsive mind,  which  he  recalled  with  joy,  nearly  three- 
score years  later. 

A  long  way  the  other  side  of  St.  Helena,  when  crossing  the 
Indian  Ocean,  one  night,  when  the  wind  had  died  away  and  the 
stars  were  out  and  the  ship  stood  still  in  a  calm,  the  family 
gathered  on  deck,  and  mother  sang  to  the  group,  which  included 
some  of  the  sailors  and  officers  of  the  ship. 

The  hymn  was  "  The  Star  of  Bethlehem.".  . 

The  calm  sea,  the  sweet  voice,  and  the  sky  filled  with  bright 
stars  made  a  scene  not  easily  forgotten. — "Judson  Centennial 
Report,"  page  45. 

Such  scenes  brought  invigoration.  With  the  promise 
of  restored  health.  Airs.  Judson  decided  to  make  the 
trip  to  America  alone  with  her  three  children.  It  was 
then  that  she  wrote  the  poem  which  has  been  recog- 
nized as  one  of  the  missionary  classics,  beginning,  "  We 
part  on  this  green  islet,  love." 

It  was  a  false  hope.  On  the  evening  of  August  31 
Mrs.  Judson  took  final  leave  of  her  children.  After 
the  ship  had  come  to  anchor  at  St.  Helena  her  life  ebbed 
out.  The  little  family  was  left  motherless — the  three  on 
shipboard  and  the  three  in  far-away  Burma. 

Our  special  interest  is  with  the  child  in  Moulmein, 
cared  for  by  missionaries,  quite  unconscious  of  his  loss. 


EARLY   LIFE  9 

Mrs.  Sarah  L.  Smith,  daughter  of  Rev.  and  Mrs.  E.  A. 
Stevens,  to  whom  Edward  was  entrusted,  gives  this  in- 
teresting reminiscence : 

When  I  was  four  years  old,  there  was  introduced  into  the 
home  a  Httle  four-months-old  bo}^  and  placed  in  my  mother's 
arms.  I  have  a  very  distinct  picture  imprinted  on  my  memor>- 
of  Doctor  Judson  entering  the  door  with  the  wee,  puny  Httle 
baby  in  his  arms  and  handing  him  to  my  mother.  Most  faith- 
fully and  lovingly  did  she  fulfil  her  trust.  The  poor  little  man 
had  had  a  hard  struggle  for  life,  because  of  the  serious  con- 
dition of  his  mother's  health  before  and  after  his  birth.  My 
mother  had  a  baby  of  her  own  only  a  few  months  older,  strong 
and  happy  and  plump.  She  was  convinced  that  the  only  way 
to  save  the  life  of  baby  Edward  was  to  give  him  the  chance 
that  little  Emma  had  enjoyed.  The  result  justified  her  expecta- 
tions. She  had  the  joy  of  returning  him  to  his  father,  two 
years  later,  in  perfect  health. 

On  November  29,  1846,  when  Edward  was  nearly  two 
years  of  age,  his  father  arrived  in  Aloulmein  with  an- 
other, whom  they  were  taught  to  call  mother — Emily 
Chubbuck  Judson — "  Fanny  Forester,"  the  brilliant  writer. 
Only  two  of  the  three  children  he  had  left  were  there 
to  greet  them ;  little  Charles  had  died  during  his  absence, 
but  Edward  was  now  strong  and  healthy,  thanks  to  the 
self-sacrificing  devotion  of  Mrs.  Stevens. 

A  peculiar  charm  attaches  to  Edward  Judson's  early 
childhood,  because  it  was  spent  in  Moulmein,  that  city 
of  permanent  missionary  interest,  and  in  the  home  of 
the  great  pioneer  missionary.  Dr.  Adoniram  Judson, 
Edward  Judson's  brother,  only  a  few  weeks  before  his 
death  in  September,  1916,  contributed  this  picture  of  life 
in  the  missionary  compound  in  Moulmein : 

Childhood  Reminiscences  of  Adoniram  B. 
Judson,  ]\I.  D. 

One  of  the  pleasures  of  old  age  is  to  recall  and  arrange  in 
order  the  incidents  of  childhood.     Mine  would  hardly  be  worth 


10  EDWARD   JUDSON,    INTERPRETER    OF   GOD 

the  recording  except  from  their  relations  to  two  well-known 
names,  that  of  my  father,  Adoniram  Judson,  the  first  American 
missionary,  and  the  loved  and  honored  name  of  my  youngest 
brother,  Edward  Judson,  the  eminent  pastor  and  a  pioneer 
in  the  missionary  stations  found  at  home  in  crowded  cities. 
Edward  and  all  his  brothers  and  sisters  were  born  at  Moulmein, 
Burma.  Extreme  climatic  conditions  have  given  a  bad  reputation 
to  that  part  of  the  world,  where  the  sun's  heat  is  intense  and 
where  the  seasons  change  only  from  very  wet  to  very  dry.  I 
do  not  recall  the  atmospheric  conditions.  Children  are  so  intent 
on  their,  to  them,  important  pursuits  that  they  have  no  time 
to  recognize  the  discomforts  and  inconveniences  which  try  so 
severely  the  temper  and  health  of  adults.  The  daily  heat  is  so 
severe  that  native  Burmans  in  their  childhood  go  without  cloth- 
ing, and  in  our  more  circumspect  circles  a  single  garment,  often 
in  the  form  of  a  "combination  suit,"  was  considered  sufficient 
for  children  except  on  the  rare  occasions  when  we  went  away 
from  home.  Our  simple  raiment  was  specially  suitable  in  the 
long  wet  season,  when  it  was  a  pastime  to  occupy  the  rain- 
barrels  and  receive  the  torrents  rushing  down  from  the  roofs. 
At  other  seasons  an  enclosure  of  dry  sand  provided  for  many 
happy  hours  spent  in  laboriously  sifting  the  sand  through  a  cane- 
bottom  stool  or  chair  in  search  of  hidden  buttons  or  small  toys. 
Another  diversion  was  to  tie  a  string  tightly  around  the  lower 
ends  of  the  "  combination,"  and  then  fill  it  in  from  the  top  with 
sand  till  the  little  legs  assumed  a  heroic  size  and  locomotion 
was  difficult,  to  say  the  least. 

Day  and  night  we  were  in  the  compound,  which  was  a  reserva- 
tion about  the  size  of  a  small  city  park,  enclosed  by  a  fence  or 
bamboo  hedge.  Here  were  found  the  mission  buildings  and 
the  families,  each  in  its  own  home.  I  think  none  of  the 
Burmans  lived  regularly  in  the  mission  compound.  There  were 
other  compounds  occupied  in  various  ways.  The  governor's 
compound,  the  cantonments,  and  the  resorts  of  resident  merchants 
were,  in  our  limited  observation,  little  known  and  mysterious 
regions.  In  serious  cases  English  physicians  were  sought,  per- 
haps those  connected  with  the  military.  Vaccination  had  not 
superseded  inoculation.  For  one  I  vividly  recall  many  a  draught 
of  decoction  of  Peruvian  bark.    Quinine  had  not  been  introduced. 

The  city  spread  over  a  wide  extent  with  interesting  bazaars, 
temples,  pagodas,  and  one-story,  highly  inflammable  thatched 
houses  crowding  on  the  narrow  streets.    Like  other  settlements 


EARLY   LIFE  II 

in  the  East,  parts  of  the  town  were  always  new  where  large 
districts  were  frequently  burnt  over.  When  a  conflagration 
started,  father  would  take  his  spear,  not  unlike  a  bayonet  fixed 
on  a  long  handle,  and  be  absent  till  the  trouble  was  over.  His 
mind  was  doubtless  on  the  preservation  of  the  mission  property 
and  the  safety  of  his  own  and  other  missionaiy  families. 

Beyond  the  city,  the  countr>'  was  more  or  less  a  jungle,  still 
infested  by  destructive  animals  which  sometimes  strayed  into 
the  town.  Two  tigers,  bent  on  exploration  or  prompted  by 
appetite,  prowled  in  as  far  as  the  jail,  where  they  were  met 
with  opposition  from  a  squad  of  soldiers.  One  of  them  escaped, 
and  we  heard  that  the  other  was  dispatched  in  a  scene  of  wild 
excitement.  The  next  day  he  was  mounted  on  a  cart  in  a 
ferocious  attitude  and  exhibited  in  the  streets.  The  procession 
passed  through  our  compound,  entering  by  the  gate  near  the 
river,  and  going  out  by  the  opposite  gate,  in  the  direction  of 
the  governor's  compound,  leaving  the  baptistry  and  the  printing- 
house  on  the  left,  and  our  house,  connected  with  the  church  by 
a  covered  path,  on  the  right. 

Each  home  had  a  cook-house,  where  rice  and  curry  and  other 
food  were  prepared.  Like  all  children  when  permitted,  we  often 
visited  the  kitchen,  where  it  was  a  fine  thing  to  secure  the  burnt 
layers  of  rice  in  the  bottom  of  the  pot.  One  day  we  saw  the 
cook-house  go  up  in  its  own  flames,  leaving  only  its  walls  of 
brick.  The  house  was  built  of  wood,  with  wide  verandas  and 
surrounded  by  a  row  of  banana  trees,  almost  against  the  eaves. 
Each  child  claimed  a  tree  and  its  fruit.  A  boy  with  a  sharp 
knife  could  construct  the  stem  of  a  gigantic  banana  leaf  in 
imitation  of  a  noisy  regulation  gun  firing  rapid  volleys.  A 
few  grains  of  Indian  com  planted  as  an  experiment  in  a  small 
round  bed  in  the  open  of  the  compound  proved  a  disappointment 
to  father  when  some  irresponsible  animal  devoured  the  tender 
blades  at  night.  Father  ate  cake  only  after  dipping  a  piece 
in  a  tumbler  of  water.  He  did  this  w^hen  in  America  in  1845, 
and  probably  explained  his  departure  from  ordinary  custom  by 
recalling  the  days  when  cake  came  from  home  dried  hard  on 
the  long  voyage. 

Rooms  were  bounded  by  a  low  partition  for  ventilation  and 
coolness.  A  ptmka,  or  swinging  board,  over  the  dinner-table 
ser\'ed  as  a  huge  fan,  moved  by  some  one  in  control  of  a  rope  on 
the  veranda.  One  day  family  prayer  was  made  more  serious 
than  usual  by  a  ceremony  in  which   father  changed  my  name 


12  EDWARD   JUDSON,    INTERPRETER   OF   GOD 

from  Fenelon  to  Adoniram,  probably  from  the  failure  of  friends 
at  home  to  appreciate  his  transient  surrender  to  the  meditations 
of  the  mystics.  A  day-school  for  the  mission  children  was 
maintained,  and  Sunday  saw  little  ones  of  all  sizes  at  church, 
where  the  very  small  slept  on  mats.  One  Sunday  I  imitated 
father's  gestures,  and  was  afterward  duly  and  deservedly 
punished. 

I  have  a  small  photo,  a  gift  of  Rev.  Sumner  R.  Vinton,  which 
shows  most  vividly,  as  I  remember  them,  the  church  with  its 
detached  belfry,  under  which  was  an  enclosed  space  thickly 
crowded  with  a  growth  of  rank  foliage,  and  here  w^as  captured 
an  enormous  animal  of  the  lizard  kind,  which  excited  general 
interest.  We  called  it  a  "  guano."  In  after  years  I  learned 
it  was  doubtless  an  iguana,  considered  a  fine  table  delicacy. 
In  the  shaded  places  at  the  sides  of  the  church,  overhung  by  an 
extension  of  the  roof,  native  women  on  week-days  carried  on 
their  weaving  or  winding  of  cotton  threads.  In  imitation  we 
set  up  a  miniature  loom  in  the  shade  of  the  covered  pathway; 
the  product  was  an  inch  or  two  of  knotty  ribbonlike  goods  of 
perhaps  a  finger's  breadth.  Father  was  interested  in  the  inven- 
tive arts,  and  I  recall  his  explaining  that  the  construction  of  the 
handle  of  the  teapot  was  partly  wood  to  protect  the  hand  from 
heat. 

In  the  same  shady  places  we  watched  the  lion-ants,  ferocious 
little  mites,  of  cannibal  tastes,  whose  method  was  to  lie  hidden 
in  their  pits  till  some  helpless  insect  came  down,  unable  to 
escape  up  the  steep  sides  of  the  rolling  sand.  It  was  possible 
to  draw  one  from  his  lair  with  his  mandibles  fixed  in  live  bait 
tied  to  a  hair.  Varieties  of  animal  life  were  abundant.  A  game 
of  hide-and-seek  was  brought  to  a  sudden  close  by  the  discovery 
of  a  gray  scorpion  on  the  floor  of  a  hiding-place  near  a  couple 
of  small  bare  feet.  We  avoided  not  only  scorpions,  but  also 
centipedes,  which  are  said  to  prefer  occupying  shoes  or  slippers 
left  empty  overnight.  But  especially  were  we  told  to  run  home 
if  we  saw  a  man  on  the  street  with  a  knife  in  his  hand,  for 
a  method  of  suicide  was  to  rush  forth,  and  slay  right  and  left 
till  volunteer  champions  arose  to  protect  themselves  and  the 
community  by  precipitating  the  desired  violent  end.  Whenever 
the  cry  of  "  amuck  "  was  heard,  a  hush  fell  on  the  neighborhood, 
and  every  non-combatant  hastened  out  of  sight.  We  and  who- 
ever was  with  us  \vere  the  first  to  run,  and  many  were  the  false 
alarms.     Our   excursions   out   of   the   compound   were    limited. 


EARLY   LIFE  I3 

Two  or  three  of  us  strayed  away,  probably  unattended  and 
without  permission,  till  we  reached  a  temple,  where  we  filled 
our  aprons  with  small  idols  of  burnt  clay  and  arrived  safely 
home  with  our  new  toys.  It  was  an  unwise  thing  to  do,  of 
course,  but  nothing  came  of  it.  Doubtless  white  youngsters 
were  treated  with  indulgence  by  the  inhabitants,  most  of  whom 
were  in  general  peaceable  and  kindly  disposed. 

It  is  related  that  Edward  and  his  older  brother  Henry  under- 
took to  convert  the  heathen  at  one  of  the  gates  of  the  compound. 
Henry  played  a  drum  and  Edward  delivered  the  preachments, 
and  a  gentle  rivalry  continued  through  life  as  to  which  had  been 
the  more  successful  in  keeping  up  the  crowd  of  admiring  pagans. 

Edward  Stevens  put  on  record  an  incident  in  which  Eddie 
Tudson  was  the  hero.  It  was  one  of  the  rare  occasions  when 
Doctor  Judson  addressed  an  audience  in  English.  The  audience 
was  a  row  of  little  boys  and  girls  on  a  long  settee.  The  story 
runs: 

"  What  was  my  surprise  to  observe  Doctor  Judson,  instead  of 
standing  up,  reading  a  passage  of  Scripture,  and  giving  us  a 
harangue,  sit  down  in  a  chair  in  front  of  us  and  begin  to  tell 
us  some  of  the  wonders  of  creation.  He  told  us  that  not  only 
did  the  sun  attract  the  earth,  but  the  earth  attracted  the  sun, 
and  that  the  reason  why  objects  thrown  up  into  the  air  fell 
back  again  was  because  of  the  same  force  of  gravitation.  The 
elements  of  astronomy  were  a  little  too  much  for  little  Eddie 
Judson.  He  evidently  felt  that  he  had  not  been  taken  suf- 
ficiently into  account.  He  became  uneasy,  and  suddenly  wriggled 
off  his  seat  upon  the  floor  before  his  father,  and  repeated  with 
great  emphasis : 

" '  'Tis  religion  that  can  give 

Sweetest  pleasures  while  we  live; 
'Tis  religion  must  supply 
Solid  comfort  when  we  die.' 

"'Well  done,'  said  his  father,  so  Eddie  clambered  back  into 
the  seat.  The  recitation  was  a  fitting  interlude  to  our  children's 
meeting." 

How  capricious  is  memory,  to  fill  our  pages  with  trifles,  some 
of  which  perhaps  might  well  have  been  omitted,  and  leave  un- 
recorded father's  wise  advice  and  the  soft  touch  of  a  mother's 
restraining  arm.  Did  the  morning  come  without  a  cheery 
word  of  welcome,  and  was  there  no  sigh  at  the  close  of  the 


14  EDWARD   JUDSON,    INTERPRETER    OF    GOD 

day?  Did  not  the  good-night  kiss  go  from  one  little  bed  to 
another?  When  the  heart  was  light,  was  there  no  witty  jest 
with  an  answering  smile  from  lips  long  ago  turned  to  cold 
clay?  Where  was  outlined  the  robed  figure  uttering  strangely 
accented  words  and  trembling  with  inspired  eloquence?  And 
where  in  that  tropic  heat  was  the  gentle  form  bowed  in  prayer 
for  the  conversion  of  the  dark  sisters  fondly  stooping  to  kiss  her 
pale  hands?  These  fanciful  creatures  are  not  found  in  the 
realm  of  sober  recollection,  but  in  imagination.  Fond  memory 
is  sadly  wanting  at  such  a  time  when  the  exercise  of  her  gentle 
arts  would  have  been  most  welcome. 

Such  were  the  scenes  commonplace  or  picturesque  in  which 
my  brother  Edward  first  saw  the  light.  It  is  related  by  a  credible 
observer  that  he  was  but  a  wee  mite,  giving  but  little  promise  of 
coming  ability  mightily  to  stir  the  minds  and  hearts  of  men  and 
women.  Children  of  the  missionaries  in  the  far  East  have  to  be 
taken  back  home  to  the  homeland  to  grow  up,  far  away  from 
their  parents.  The  same  is  true  in  families  of  officials  of  the 
East  India  Company.  It  was  early  found  that  such  offspring 
could  not  survive  the  climate  conditions  which  apparently  agreed 
so  well  with  the  native-born.  When  Doctor  Judson  took  three 
to  America  he  left  three  behind.  A  divided  and  scattered  family 
presents  the  saddest  and  most  perplexing  problem  of  missionary 
life. 

The  following  graphic  pen-pictures  of  Edward's  child- 
hood surroundings  are  from  a  letter  by  Mrs.  Emily  C. 
Judson  to  a  Utica  friend.  She  refers  to  the  house  where 
they  lived  as  a  barnlike-looking  structure,  a  mere  board 
shanty  as  compared  with  the  Utica  houses.  Describing 
the  discomforts,  she  says : 

I  should  tell  you  that  Edward  cried  in  the  night  last  night,  as 
he  is  not  well.  I  sprang  up  to  go  to  him.  As  I  put  my  foot 
upon  the  floor  it  was  black  Avith  ants,  no  uncommon  thing.  We 
are  obliged  to  have  our  bedstead  stand  constantly  in  water.  I 
do  not  know  whether  or  not  I  should  tell  you  how  the  frogs 
hop  from  my  sleeves  when  I  put  them  on  and  how  the  lizards 
drop  from  the  ceiling  to  the  table  when  we  are  eating.  .  .  You 
would  not  need  to  be  told  that  Moulmein  is  a  beautiful  place, 
if  you  could  see  it.  To  my  eye  there  is  nothing  in  a  land  of 
frosts  to  compare  with  it.  .  .  The  scenery  around  us  is  perfectly 


liARLY   LIFE 


15 


charming,  the  hills  are  bristling  with  white  and  gilded  pagodas. 
As  you  turn  back  upon  the  hills  a  scene  unrivaled  in  picturesque 
beauty  opens  upon  your  view,  and  you  involuntarily  draw  up 
in  the  middle  of  the  street  and  stand  erect  in  your  stirrups. 
Here  and  there  little  houses  like  last  year's  haystacks  are  stuck 
down  in  groves  of  various  kinds  of  trees,  the  palms,  cocoa, 
orange,  lime,  and  jack. 

Moulmein  was  a  cosmopolitan  city — a  prophecy  per- 
haps of  the  environment  in  which,  in  New  York  City, 
Edward  Jitdson  was  to  do  his  work. 

A  portly,  kinglike  Mogul  rolls  by  in  his  lumbering  gazzee; 
a  Jew,  in  his  own  peculiar  costume,  is  wending  his  way  to  his 
merchandise,  looking,  poor  fellow !  little  like  a  child  of  Abraham ; 
the  Chinaman  toddles  along  in  his  high-toed  shoes  and  silken 
trousers ;  the  Indian  from  the  other  coast  covers  himself  entirely 
with  his  white  flowing  drapery,  making  a  very  ghostlike  appear- 
ance as  he  squats  on  the  hillside,  or  glides  along  the  street;  the 
ugly  Portuguese,  aping  the  ungraceful  English  style  of  dress,  jogs 
his  way  in  clerklike  fashion ;  and  the  Burman,  with  his  checkered 
patso  thrown  over  his  shoulders  and  descending  to  his  knees  to 
protect  him  from  the  chill  air  of  the  morning,  steps  from  the 
road,  and  stares  admiringly,  exclaiming  meanwhile  at  the  courage 
of  the  English  ladies.— "  Lt'/^  of  Emily  C.  Judson,"  page  257. 

But  soon  Httle  Edward  was  taken  to  less  attractive  sur- 
roundings. It  had  long  been  the  dream  and  passionate 
desire  of  Adoniram  Judson  to  establish  a  mission  in 
Rangoon,  one  hundred  miles  distant,  which  had  resisted 
all  missionary  efifort.  On  February  22,  1847,  though  ad- 
vanced in  years,  with  the  courage  of  a  pioneer,  he  moved 
his  family  to  that  interesting  city. 

The  most  comfortable  quarters  they  could  find  in 
Rangoon  Mrs,  Judson  described  as  "Bat  Castle": 

Think  of  me  in  an  immense  brick  house  with  rooms  as  large 
as  the  entire  "loggery"  (our  center  room  is  twice  as  large  and 
has  no  window),  and  only  one  small  window  apiece.  When  I 
speak  of  windows,  do  not  think  I  make  any  allusion  to  glass— 
of  course  not.     The  windows   (holes)   are  closed  by  means  of 


1 6  EDWARD   JUDSON,    INTERPRETER   OF   GOD 

heavy  board  or  plank  shutters,  tinned  over  on  the  outside,  as  a 
preventive  of  fire.  .  . 

The  partitions  are  all  of  brick  and  very  thick,  and  the  door-sills 
are  built  up,  so  that  I  go  over  them  at  three  or  four  steps; 
Henry  mounts  and  falls  off,  and  Edward  gets  on  all  fours  and 
accomplishes  the  pass  with  more  safety.  The  floor  overhead 
is  quite  low,  and  the  beams,  which  are  frequent,  afford  shelter 
to  thousands  and  thousands  of  bats.  .  . 

The  other  night  I  awoke  faint,  with  a  feeling  of  suffocation, 
and  without  waiting  to  think,  jumped  out  on  the  floor.  You 
would  have  thought  "Old  Nick"  himself  had  come  after  you, 
for,  of  course,  you  believe  these  firm  friends  of  the  ladies 
of  the  broomstick  incipient  imps.  .  . 

Besides  the  bats,  we  are  blessed  with  our  full  share  of  cock- 
roaches, beetles,  spiders,  lizards,  rats,  ants,  and  mosquitoes.  .  . 
Only  one  cockroach  has  paid  me  a  visit,  but  the  neglect  of  these 
gentlemen  has  been  fully  made  up  by  a  company  of  black 
bugs  about  the  size  of  the  end  of  your  little  finger,  nameless 
adventurers. — "Life  of  Emily  C.  Judson"  page  27of. 

Because  of  the  persecution  of  the  natives  they  were 
unable  to  secure  suitable  food.  This  is  Mrs.  Judson's 
description  of  a  dinner  in  Bat  Castle : 

As  for  living,  I  must  own  that  I  am  within  an  inch  of 
starvation,  and  poor  little  Henry  says,  when  he  sits  down  to 
the  table,  "  I  don't  want  any  dinner,  I  wish  we  could  go  back  to 
Moulmein."  His  father  does  better,  for  he  never  has  a  poor 
appetite.  For  a  long  time  after  we  first  came  here  we  could  get 
no  bread  at  all ;  now  we  get  a  heavy,  black,  sour  kind,  for  which 
we  pay  just  three  times  as  much  as  we  did  at  Moulmein.  .  .  Our 
milk  is  a  mixture  of  buffalo's  milk,  water,  and  something  else 
Avhich  we  cannot  make  out.  .  .  The  butter  we  make  from  it  is 
like  lard  with  flakes  of  tallow.  .  . 

I  must  tell  you,  however,  of  the  grand  dinner  we  had  one  day. 
"  You  must  contrive  and  get  something  that  mamma  can  eat," 
the  doctor  said  to  our  Burmese  purveyor;  "she  will  starv^e  to 
death."  "What  shall  I  get?"  "Anything."  "Anything?" 
"  Anything !  "  Well,  we  did  have  a  capital  dinner,  though  we 
tried  in  vain  to  find  out  by  the  bones  what  it  was.  Henry 
said  it  was  tonk-fahs,  a  species  of  lizard,  and  I  should  have 
thought  so  too,  if  the  little  animal  had  been  of  a  fleshy  con- 


EARLY   LIl-E  ly 

sistence.  Cook  said  he  didn't  know,  but.  he  grinned  a  horrible 
grin,  which  made  my  stomach  heave  a  httle,  notwithstand- 
ing the  dehciousness  of  the  meal.  In  the  evening  we  called 
Mr.  Bazaarman.  "What  did  we  have  for  dinner  to-day?" 
"Were  they  good?"  "Excellent."  A  tremendous  explosion  of 
laughter,  in  which  the  cook  from  his  dishroom  joined  as  loud 
as  he  dared.  "What  were  they?"  "  Rats."— "  Life  of  Emily 
C.  Judson,"  page  276f. 

To  add  to  their  desperate  straits  every  member  of  the 
household  was  taken  seriously  ill,  and  at  the  same  time 
the  persecution  was  intensified.  It  seemed  at  one  time 
that  longer  life  would  be  denied  little  Edward. 

Something  is  the  matter  with  Edward.  He  was  wakeful  all 
night,  and  this  morning  he  screams  out  suddenly  when  at  his 
play  as  in  pain,  and  runs  to  me  as  fast  as  he  can.  Poor  little 
fellow!  he  cannot  tell  his  trouble.  .  .  He  scarcely  ever  cries  yet 
screams  seem  forced  from  him  as  by  a  sudden  blow.  He  runs  to 
me,  but  recovers  in  a  moment,  and  goes  back  to  play.  There 
IS  something  very  alarming  in  this,  knowing  the  brave  little 
fellows  disposition  as  I  do. 

But  fortunately  for  Edward,  the  scene  again  changes. 
The  missionary  board  at  Boston  withheld  funds  for  the 
work  at  Rangoon.  The  surrender  of  this  field  was  one 
of  the  most  severe  sacrifices  of  Adoniram  Judson's  life. 
The  home  was  again  established  in  IMouImein.  There, 
on  the  twenty- fourth  of  December,  another  little  life 
came  into  the  household,  that  of  Emily  Frances. 

Edward  Judson's  First  Prayer 
One  night  Edward,  who  slept  in  a  little  room  by  himself  called 
out  that  he  was  afraid,  and  would  not  be  comforted.  I  have 
never  taught  them  a  prayer  to  repeat,  because  I  do  not  like 
the  formality,  but  I  assist  them  in  discovering  what  they  need 
and  then  have  them  repeat  the  words  after  me.  So  I  prayed 
with  little  Edward,  kissed  him  good  night,  and  left  him  apparently 
satisfied.  Pretty  soon,  however,  I  heard  him  call  out  in  great 
distress,    "O    Dod ! "      The    poor    little    fellow    had    not    suf- 


l8  EDWARD   JUDSON,    INTERPRETER   OF   GOD 

ficieiit  acquaintance  with  the  language  to  know  what  to  say  next, 
but  this  upHfting  of  the  heart  evidently  relieved  him,  for  in  a 
few  minutes  after  he  again  called  out,  "  O  Dod !  "  but  in  a  tone 
much  softened.  I  stepped  to  the  door,  but  hesitated  about  enter- 
ing. In  a  few  moments  he  again  repeated,  "  O  Dod !  "  but  in 
a  tone  so  confiding  that  I  thought  that  I  had  better  go  back 
to  my  room  and  leave  him  with  his  great  Protector.  I  heard 
no  more  of  him  for  some  time,  and  when  at  last  I  went  in,  I 
found  him  on  his  knees  fast,  asleep.  He  never  fails  now  to 
remind  me  of  asking  "  Dod  to  tate  tare  of  him,"  if  I  neglect  it, 
and  I  have  never  heard  him  say  a  word  since  of  being  afraid. — 
"Life  of  Btnily  C.  Jiidson,"  page  292. 

The  children  found  the  father  a  delightful  playmate : 

I  have  to  hold  a  meeting  with  the  rising  generation  every  eve- 
ning, and  that  takes  time.  Henry  can  say,  "  Twinkle,  Twinkle," 
all  himself,  and  Edward  can  repeat  it  after  his  father.  Giants 
of  genius,  paragons  of  erudition. — "Life  of  Adoniram  Judson," 
page  524. 

The  cloud  which  so  frequently  hung  over  Edward's 
home  again  settled,  and  from  it  again  emerged  the  hand 
of  death,  but  strength  in  weakness  is  revealed.  The 
romance  in  the  life  of  Adoniram  Judson  is  finely  shown 
by  his  inspiring  words  to  Mrs,  Judson  just  before  he 
set  out  on  his  last  voyage.  She  told  him  that  it  was  the 
opinion  of  the  missionaries  that  he  could  not  recover. 

"  I  know  it  is,"  he  replied,  "  and  I  suppose  they  think  me  an  old 
man,  and  imagine  it  is  nothing  for  one  like  me  to  resign  a  life 
so  full  of  trials.  But  I  am  not  old — at  least  not  in  that  sense; 
you  know  I  am  not.  Oh,  no  man  ever  left  this  world  with  more 
inviting  prospects,  with  brighter  hopes,  or  warmer  feelings.  I  am 
not  tired  of  my  work,  neither  am  I  tired  of  the  world ;  yet  when 
Christ  calls  me  home  I  shall  go  with  the  gladness  of  a  boy 
bounding  away  from  his  school." 

In  a  last  effort  to  restore  his  health,  he  was  taken  on 
board  a  French  barge  bound  for  Bordeaux.  For  four 
days  Edward  and  his  brothers  saw  their  mother  go  out 


EARLY   LIFE 


19 


each  morning  to  visit  the  boat  and  return  at  night  heart- 
broken, but  at  last  the  boat  cleared  the  river  and  sailed 
out  to  sea,  leaving  the  family  in  heartrending  suspense 
for  four  months.  On  the  twenty-eighth  of  August,  as 
the  nineteenth  century  had  reached  its  very  meridian, 
the  word  came  that  the  father  had  passed  away  only  two 
weeks  after  bidding  his  family  farewell. 

To  AxMERICA 

The  whole  future  of  Edward's  life  was  determined 
by  the  decision  made  by  his  stepmother  after  her  hus- 
band's death.  At  first  it  was  her  purpose  to  remain  at 
her  task,  but  because  of  the  serious  condition  of  her 
health  she  decided  to  return  to  America.  On  January 
22,  185 1,  when  Edward  was  in  his  seventh  year,  the 
little  family  group  left  Moulmein,  never  to  return.  ' 

The  long  voyage  brought  strength  to  the  mother  and 
the  ruddy  glow  of  health  to  the  yellow  cheeks  of  the 
boys.  The  mother  wrote  from  London,  "The  sallow 
cheeks  of  my  children  are  aglow  with  English  roses." 

Leaving  Liverpool  on  the  twentieth  of  September  on 
the  Canada,  they  reached  Boston  early  in  October,  1851, 
where  for  the  first  time  Edward  saw  his  brothers  Adoni- 
ram  and  Elnathan  and  his  sister  Abbie  Ann.  (Adoniram 
became  a  physician,  and  settled  in  New  York  City,  where 
he  attained  distinction  in  orthopedic  surgery  '  As  a 
member  of  the  .Memorial  Church,  he  was  associated  with 
his  brother  Edward  for  many  years.) 

The  family  circle  was  at  once  broken,  for  the  mother's 
health  was  not  equal  to  the  care  of  all  the  children. 
Dr.  and  Mrs.  Edward  Bright,  into  whose  home  they 
had  been  received,  assumed  the  care  of  Elnathan;  Abbie 
Ann  returned  to  her  school  in  Philadelphia;  Airs.  Jud- 
son's  own  daughter  Emily  and  the  two  boys  Henry  and 
Edward  went  with  their  mother  to  Hamilton.    But  even 


20  EDWARD   JUDSON,    INTERPRETER   OF   GOD 

there  they  were  denied  the  delights  of  home  Hfe  and  the 
continued  care  of  a  mother.  The  next  winter  was  spent 
in  Philadelphia  and  in  Providence,  where  the  mother 
assisted  Doctor  Wayland  in  the  preparation  of  her  hus- 
band's biography. 

In  the  following  June  ]\Irs.  Judson  purchased  a  com- 
fortable house  in  Hamilton,  New  York,  where  she  might 
reunite  her  family.  But  the  pleasures  of  home  life  were 
brief.  Because  of  the  rigors  of  the  Hamilton  climate, 
the  next  winter  the  mother  was  compelled  to  live  in 
Philadelphia.  She  left  the  two  boys,  Edward  and  Henry, 
in  Hamilton  under  the  care  of  Mr.  Osborne,  a  student 
in  the  university. 

Edward  Judson's  life  was  still  under  her  afifectionate 
care.  Her  biographer  says :  "  Her  care  extended  to 
all  points  of  manners,  habits,  mental  and  moral  culture, 
while  at  the  same  time  she  studied  carefully  their  diver- 
sities of  temperament  and  cherished  rather  than  re- 
pressed their  buoyancy  of  spirits."  The  mother's  pen 
was  kept  busy,  not  only  in  helping  to  write  the  memoirs 
of  her  illustrious  husband,  but  in  an  efifort  to  supple- 
ment their  limited  income. 

Edward  was  a  lovable,  bright,  active  boy.  These  ex- 
tracts from  two  letters  from  Mrs.  Judson  to  Edward's 
older  brothers,  Adoniram  and  Elnathan,  give  evidence  of 
Edward's  rather  remarkable  promise  and  his  early  seri- 
ous purpose.    On  November  17,  1853,  she  wrote: 

The  boys  (Edward  and  Henry)  really  have  but  very  little 
time  to  write,  since  the  days  are  so  short  and  they  are  obHged 
to  be  in  school  Saturday  forenoon.  They  are  doing  nicely, 
especially  Eddy.  Mr.  Buell  says  he  is  the  best  Latin  scholar 
in  the  class,  though  it  is  mostly  composed  of  full-grown  gen- 
tlemen and  ladies.  They  have  commenced  reading  Caesar,  and 
do  much  better  than  I  feared.  Eddy  is  going  to  make  a  fine 
speaker.  He  is  cheered  every  time  he  goes  on  the  floor.  Of 
course  this  is  partly  because  he  is  a  little  fellow,  but  them  he 


EARLY   LIFE  21 

speaks  siirprisinglj'  well.  He  is  indeed  a  most  promising  child, 
not  so  much  on  account  of  his  talents,  which  are  yrcat,  but  he 
has  a  large  soul,  a  generous  warm  heart,  and  he  is  industrious, 
persevering,  and  brave.  I  do  not  think  I  have  heard  him  say 
can't  once  since  he  has  been  in  school. 

In  a  letter  of  December  ninth  of  the  same  year  Mrs. 
Judson  says : 

Eddy  had  the  honor  to  speak  before  the  Philomathian  Society, 
or  rather  at  a  public  meeting  of  that  Society,  last  evening.  He 
was  applauded  vociferously  by  a  crowded  audience;  not,  of 
course,  that  he  is  a  perfect  orator  in  his  babyhood,  but  he 
speaks  remarkably  well,  and  was  the  only  boy  in  a  society  of 
young  men.  Sometimes  I  am  afraid  so  much  praise  will  hurt 
him,  but  he  doesn't  seem  to  mind  it,  takes  it  all  in  his  honest, 
good-natured  way  as  a  matter  of  course.  To-day  closes  the 
term.  Eddy's  report  is  perfect;  Henry's  not  quite,  but  he  has 
done  very  well.  Did  I  ever  tell  you  I  had  a  hope  Eddy  is  a 
Christian?  I  have  cherished  it  secretly  a  long  time;  and  now 
Eddy  begins  modestly  to  speak  of  it  himself.  He  thinks  he 
loves  the  Saviour;  he  wants  to  serve  him.  May  the  Holy  Spirit 
turn  all  of  his  natural  greatness,  his  talents,  his  industr>',  his 
indomitable  perseverance,  his  largeness  of  soul  into  the  Lord's 
treasury,  and  add  the  grains  of  true  holiness. 

In  1854,  Edward's  tenth  year,  the  mother's  health 
rapidly  declined.  Her  literary  work  was  laid  aside  for- 
ever. In  June  the  end  came.  In  no  small  degree  was 
the  life  of  Edward  Judson  shaped  by  this  remarkable 
woman,  in  whom  were  blended  a  great  wealth  of  affec- 
tion, a  breadth  of  culture,  and  a  depth  of  religious  devo- 
tion. 

Edward  was  then  an  orphan.  Association  with  his 
brothers  and  sisters  was  denied  him,  for  they  had  to  be 
separated.  He  was  welcomed  into  the  home  of  Rev.  Ebe- 
nezer  Dodge,  professor  in  ^iladison  University  (now 
Colgate),  of  which  he  became  president  a  few  years 
later.    His  half-sister  Emilv  was  committed  to  the  care 


22  EDWARD   JUDSON,    INTERPRETER   OF   GOD 

of  Miss  Ann  Maria  Anable.     The  other  children  were 
given  comfortable  though  temporary  homes. 

During  his  years  in  the  home  of  Doctor  Dodge,  a 
college  president  of  the  most  noble  type,  beloved  of  every 
alumnus  of  Colga^^e  University  who  came  within  his 
influence,  Edward  Judson  received  many  influences  which 
shaped  his  character  and  doubtless  helped  to  determine 
his  career.  The  Rev.  Jonathan  Bastow,  classmate  in 
academy  and  college,  gives  this  interesting  picture : 

Doctor  Dodge  was  proud  of  him  and  anxious  to  secure  for 
him  the  best  possible  education.  Mrs.  Dodge  was  an  excellent 
motherly  woman  of  rare  intelligence  and  kindness.  She  loved 
Edward  very  fondly,  as  there  was  no  other  child  in  the  family. 
Edward  had  a  smile  in  his  boyhood  days  that  was  very  charm- 
ing. You  could  see  that  his  whole  soul  was  behind  it.  He  had 
a  loving  disposition,  a  contented  spirit,  his  life  was  full  of 
joy  and  hope,  and  he  expressed  all  that  by  the  beautiful  smiling 
countenance  and  his  sweet  tones  of  voice  and  gentle  bearing. 

Residents  in  Hamilton  tell  to  this  day  how  this  youth 
of  promise  grew  to  strength  of  manhood  in  their  village. 


II 

SCHOLAR,   TEACHER,   AND   EDUCATOR 

In  the  study  of  any  noble  outstanding  life  you  can  almost 
always  discover  in  the  background  certain  obscure  personalities 
that  have  contributed  largely  to  its  splendor  and  efficiency;  as  a 
river  owes  the  force  of  its  current  to  secret  springs  nestling 
among  the  hills. — Edward  Judson. 

HOW  many  obscure  personalities  contributed  to  the 
efficiency  of  Edward  Judson's  life  we  may  not 
know,  but  few  lives  have  been  touched  by  so  many  men 
and  women  of  genius  as  was  his.  If  to  sit  on  the  end 
of  a  log  opposite  Mark  Hopkins  was  to  touch  influences 
like  those  of  a  university,  what  could  daily  fellowship 
with  Ebenezer  Dodge,  in  whose  home  Edward  Judson 
was  nurtured,  have  meant  to  the  keenly  sensitive  youth? 
The  year  before  Edward  Judson  was  brought  to  Ham- 
ilton, Doctor  Dodge  became  Professor  of  Evidences  of 
Revealed  Religion  in  Madison  (now  Colgate)  University 
and  of  Biblical  Criticism  and  Interpretation  in  the  Theo- 
logical Seminary.  He  did  not  becoine  president,  the  office 
in  which  he  wielded  his  great  life  influence,  until  1868, 
the  year  that  Edward  Judson  was  elected  to  a  regular 
professorship  in  the  same  institution.  Certain  of  Doctor 
Dodge's  characteristics  found  their  counterpart  in  Ed- 
ward Judson.  "  From  youth  to  age  he  was  a  good  lin- 
guist," said  Dr.  William  N.  Clarke  in  his  memorial 
address  on  Ebenezer  Dodge.  "  His  taste  for  books 
amounted  to  a  hunger,  and  his  taste  for  beauty  to  a 
thirst.  .  .  He  had  a  keen  appreciation  in  art;  he  was 
an  eager  student  of  painting,  of  architecture,  of  an- 
tiquities. .  .  This  fine  pure  taste  leavened  his  life.  His 
c  23 


24  EDWARD   JUDSON,    INTERPRETER    OF   GOD 

whole  bearing  and  influence  illustrated  the  value  of  high 
tastes  as  an  element  in  character.  In  spirit,  as  we  all 
know,  he  was  independent.  Throughout  his  life  he  recog- 
nized and  claimed  that  first  right  of  intellectual  man- 
hood, the  right  of  thinking  for  himself." 

Edward  Judson's  aptness  of  expression  may  have  been 
cultivated  by  Doctor  Dodge,  of  whom  Doctor  Clarke  said : 
"  A  certain  Yankee  shrewdness  and  native  wit  was  added 
to  all  the  rest,  which  often  condensed  his  wise  thought 
into  a  fine  sententiousness.  His  accidental  sayings  were 
often  terse  and  wise,  like  the  Proverbs  of  Solomon."  But 
above  these  characteristics  Doctor  Dodge  was  a  man  of 
sincere  piety,  and  "  Into  all  his  thinking  entered  as  a  rul- 
ing element  his  reverence  toward  God  and  his  spirituality 
of  mind.  He  prayed,  spoke,  taught,  lived,  as  a  devout 
man,  a  child  of  God.  .  .  The  God  of  perfect  goodness 
was  a  living  reality  in  his  own  life.  He  was  sure  that 
this  world  was  the  world  of  God,  and  he  never  feared 
to  trust  it  to  his  care  and  wisdom."  Doctor  Dodge  was 
a  towering  personality.  He  knew  how  to  impart  his  con- 
victions to  a  growing  youth.  "  His  personality  made  his 
way  and  achieved  his  victories.  He  stood  among  us  a  man 
whose  stature  was  the  true  symbol  of  his  eminence,  and 
the  vigor  of  whose  step  pictured  the  force  of  his  char- 
acter." At  the  hand  of  such  a  master  educator,  Edward 
Judson  received  his  informal  training  during  his  most 
plastic  years. 

Rev.  Jonathan  Bastow,  a  classmate,  says : 

When,  on  February  i,  1856,  I  entered  the  preparatory  depart- 
ment of  Madison  University,  it  numbered  forty-eight,  with  several 
students  of  rare  ability;  among  them  was  Edward  Judson,  then 
twelve  years  of  age,  much  younger  than  any  other  member  of 
the  class.  He  was  not  with  us  in  all  of  his  studies,  the  inten- 
tion being  not  to  press  him  too  much  with  study  on  account  of 
his  youthfulness. 


SCHOLAR,    TEACHER,    AXD    EDUCATOR  25 

llavin<j  seen  the  rare  linguistie  ability  of  his  father 
and  mother  and  that  Doetor  Dodge  loved  language  study 
and  excelled  in  it,  we  are  not  surprised  that  Edward  too 
showed  marked  ability  as  a  linguist.  "  I  remember  particu- 
larly his  rare  ability  in  the  languages,"  says  Mr,  Bastow. 

He  was  as  familiar,  apparently,  with  the  rules  of  the  English 
grammar  as  with  his  alphabet.  I  remember  when  he  began  the 
study  of  Latin  and  Greek,  he  recited  with  exceedingly  great 
accuracy.  His  translations  were  always  clear  and  accurate.  I 
shall  never  forget  his  analysis  of  a  brief  paragraph  in  Latin, 
which  required  a  longer  time  than  usually  given  a  student  in  a 
recitation,  being  done  so  perfectly  that  it  called  forth  an 
applause  from  the  class.  He  thoroughly  mastered  all  of  his 
lessons  in  every  department,  but  I  think  he  was  perhaps  a 
little  more  accurate  and  at  ease  in  the  languages  than  in 
anything  else. 

Though  Doctor  Dodge  was  a  professor  in  Aladison  Uni- 
versity, it  seems  altogether  fitting  that  he  should  have 
matriculated  Edward  at  the  close  of  his  freshman  year 
at  Brown  University,  especially  as  Edward's  father  had 
graduated  from  Brown  in  1807,  his  brother  Elnathan  in 
1861,  and  his  brother  Adoniram  in  1859, 

Edward  Judson's  files  have  preserved  the  record  of 
but  one  incident  during  his  college  course.  That  incident 
is  illuminating.  With  others,  he  had  incurred  the  dis- 
pleasure of  the  faculty  by  signing  a  certain  paper.  /\s 
President  Sears  suspected  that  Edward  was  the  leader  in 
its  circulation,  he  suspended  him.  He  left  Providence 
at  once,  and  went  to  his  aunt's  at  Plymouth,  where  he 
made  his  home  during  his  college  course.  A  classmate, 
in  writing  to  him  on  January  9,  1864,  makes  this  inter- 
esting comment  on  his  refusal  to  sign  some  disavowal  as 
demanded  by  the  president : 

This  afternoon  I  spent  at  Professor  Green's.  Mrs.  Green  de- 
livered j-our  kind  message  to  myself,  expressed  her  gladness  in 


26  EDWARD   JUDSON,   INTERPRETER   OF   GOD 

hearing  from  you,  and  said  also  that  she  had  much  more 
respect  for  you,  not  signing  the  paper,  than  for  those  who  signed 
that  important  document  with  a  mental  reservation.  So  said  the 
professor. 

His  college  chum,  Miner  R.  Deming,  interviewed  the 
president  in  Edward's  behalf,  but  without  his  knowledge. 

The  doctor  said  that  they  were  all  pleased  at  the  stand  you 
have  taken  intellectually,  but  think  that  you  like  best  to  cut  up 
and  have  a  good  time.  I  told  him  I  was  sorry  they  had  such  a 
poor  appreciation  of  your  character.  I  defended  you  as  warmly 
and  candidly  as  I  knew  how. 

Edward  Judson's  standing  in  the  student  body  is  reflected 
by  this  observation  of  his  friend :  "  The  feeling  through 
college  is  quite  strong  in  favor  of  you.  They  talk  of 
getting  up  a  petition  in  your  behalf  in  the  senior  class 
and  also  in  ours."  This  incident,  so  characteristic  of 
student  bodies,  reflects  the  same  attitude :  "  The  fellows 
inquire  after  you  every  day.  This  morning  Professor 
Green  called  your  name.  Although  it  was  quite  unex- 
pected, it  created  an  instantaneous  and  respectable  stamp." 
These  incidents  are  cited  to  show  Edward  Judson's  in- 
nate independence  of  spirit,  his  standing  as  a  student, 
and,  incidentally,  his  popularity  with  his  fellows.  In 
college,  as  in  later  life,  he  was  always  a  man.  Whether 
in  camp,  or  tent,  or  committee  conference,  he  stood  under 
his  own  burden  and  never  leaned  upon  another. 

Edward  Judson  was  graduated  with  the  degree  of 
bachelor  of  arts  on  September  6,  1865,  He  was  chosen 
to  deliver  the  classical  oration,  taking  for  his  theme, 
"  The  Myth  of  Prometheus  Vinctus."  By  his  scholarship 
he  won  a  coveted  Phi  Beta  Kappa  key. 

He  accepted  the  principalship  of  Leland  and  Gray 
Seminary  at  Townshend,  \^ermont,  where  he  served 
with  marked  success  for  two  years.     In  later  years  he 


SCHOLAR,    TEACHER,    AND    EDUCATOR  2/ 

had  delight  in  teUing  how  a  farmer,  mistaking  liim  for 
one  of  the  boys  in  the  school,  called  out,  "  Here,  bub, 
help  me  load  this  grain."  Though  youthful  in  appear- 
ance, this  letter  written  to  his  sister  in  April,  1867,  re- 
flects the  trend  of  his  thought  and  his  very  serious  pur- 
pose at  the  time. 

I  am  sadly  undecided  as  to  my  future  course  of  life.  I  think 
I  have  gleaned  all  the  benefits  which  accrue  from  teaching  in 
Toivnshend,  and  perhaps  from  teaching  anywhere.  In  fact,  strange 
as  it  may  seem,  teaching  is  losing  its  charm  for  me.  I  feel  the 
more  sad  in  view  of  this  discontent,  because  I  feel  as  if  I  had  as 
good  a  chance  of  doing  good  by  teaching  here  as  by  engaging 
in  any  other  profession.  My  school  is  a  kind  of  little  church  and 
congregation,  and  made  up  too,  of  persons  of  such  an  age  that 
they  can  be  most  easily  impressed  by  the  subject  of  religion.  We 
have  two  prayer-meetings  a  week,  one  on  Wednesday  evening  and 
one  on  Llonday  evening.  So  that  every  term  there  are  several 
conversions,  and  sometimes  we  have  extensive  revivals,  in  which 
almost  all  the  unconverted  in  school  are  turned  to  God.  .  . 

In  view  of  these  things  I  have  a  growing  conviction  that  as 
the  conversion  of  sinners  is  the  noblest  business  of  life,  I  could 
not  accomplish  any  more  good  by  directly  becoming  a  minister 
than  I  can  by  remaining  a  teacher  and  yet  do  some  pastoral  work. 
Connect  with  this  growing  conviction  my  growing  discontent  in  the 
business  of  teaching,  and  you  can  gain  some  idea  of  the  distracted 
and  restless  state  of  mind  which  I  indulge  in.  .  .  One  of  the  bit- 
terest curses  of  life  is  the  fact  that  we  are  called  on  to  make  the 
most  important  decisions — decisions  which  involve  our  whole 
future  happiness,  just  at  that  time  of  life  when  we  have  the  least 
experience. 

After  his  retirement  from  this  school  he  entered  the 
theological  department  of  Madison  University,  in  the 
fall  of  1867,  but  remained  for  a  few  weeks  only,  when 
he  became  Instructor  in  Languages  in  the  university. 
In  1868  he  became  Professor  of  Latin  and  Modern 
Languages.  This  brought  him  into  close  association  with 
Doctor  Dodge,  who  in  the  same  year  was  elected  to  the 
presidency.     In  this  position  Edward  Judson's  tastes  as 


28  EDWARD   JUDSON,    INTERPRETER   OF   GOD 

a  linguist  had  free  scope.  Colgate  men  of  that  period 
are  enthusiastic  in  speaking  of  Professor  Judson  as  a 
teacher  of  Latin. 

He  was  following  the  line  of  least  resistance.  By 
hereditary  tendency,  by  early  training,  and  by  choice  he 
was  a  linguist  and  as  naturally  a  teacher.  But  there 
was  another  inherited  trait  which  was  dominant.  His 
soul  was  of  the  heroic  type.  For  Edward  Judson  the 
line  of  least  resistance  was  the  line  most  to  be  resisted. 
He  instinctively  took  the  hard  and  rugged  way.  Dur- 
ing this  professorship  he  was  accustomed  to  preach  in 
schoolhouses  and  in  neighboring  churches.  Some  of  these 
early  sermons  are  still  preserved.  It  was  during  this 
time  that  he  began  to  apply  to  Bible  study  his  skill  as 
a  linguist.  From  that  time  almost  to  the  day  of  his 
death  it  was  his  custom  to  read  daily  a  portion  of  the 
Old  Testament  and  a  portion  of  the  New  Testament  in 
two  or  more  languages  and  in  systematic  course  so  as 
to  cover  the  entire  Old  Testament  once  and  the  New 
Testament  twice  during  each  year.  A  much  worn  Bible, 
that  is  now  among  the  cherished  possessions  of  the  writer, 
gives  a  record  of  these  readings  from  1877  down  to 
Monday,  October  nineteenth,  preceding  his  death  on  Fri- 
day the  twenty-third.  The  record  shows  that  these  read- 
ings were  in  Hebrew,  Greek,  Latin,  German,  French,  and 
English.  One  of  the  writer's  delightful  recollections  of 
association  with  Doctor  Judson  concerns  a  Sunday  morn- 
ing in  September,  1912,  when,  in  camp  on  an  island  in 
the  center  of  Tomogami  Lake  in  the  heart  of  the  Cana- 
dian woods  where  man's  hand  had  made  neither  road 
nor  clearing,  Doctor  Judson  read  aloud  in  Hebrew  and 
translated  into  English  while  the  writer  followed  a  Latin 
translation. 

It  was  during  the  period  of  his  residence  in  Hamilton 
that  he  married  Antoinette  Barstow,  the  daughter  of  the 


SCHOLAR,    TEACHER,    AND   EDUCATOR  29 

Rev.    Charles    Barstow,    a    Congregational    pastor    then 
located  at  Lebanon,  Xew  York,  seven  miles  from  Hamil-  " 
ton. 

In  1874,  Professor  Judson  resigned  his  professorship, 
and  with  Mrs.  Judson  sailed  for  Europe  for  a  year  of 
study  and  travel.  While  they  were  abroad  the  North 
Orange  Baptist  Church,  one  of  the  churches  known  in 
that  day,  as  in  this,  for  its  culture,  its  wide  educational 
and  missionary  outlook,  and  for  its  general  strength  and 
aggressiveness,  called  him  as  its  pastor. 

While  he  resigned  his  professorship  and  became  a 
pastor,  he  did  not  cease  to  be  a  scholar  and  a  teacher. 
He  carried  his  scholarly  habits  into  the  pastorate,  and 
never  ceased  to  be  a  teacher,  though  he  had  become 
pastor  and  preacher. 

He  took  particular  pleasure,  as  did  his  father,  in  train- 
ing young  men.  His  connection  with  educational  insti- 
tutions gave  him  a  greater  opportunity  for  such  in- 
fluence than  his  father  ever  had.  To  the  close  of  his 
life  he  was  accustomed  to  invite  groups  of  young  min- 
isters to  his  study  one  morning  each  week  for  homiletical 
work.  He  required  only  that  each  of  the  group  should 
preach  in  his  own  pulpit  the  sermon  which  all  had  helped 
to  shape. 

He  continued  his  scholarly  pursuits  to  the  end  of  his 
life,  though  in  later  years  his  exacting  responsibilities 
limited  his  opportunity.  He  found  daily  Bible  study  a 
superb  field  for  a  comparative  language  study.  He  was 
a  careful  student  of  English  literature,  particularly  of 
the  poets,  and  as  he  had  opportunity  he  took  courses  in 
university  classrooms.  Late  in  life  he  took  lectures  in 
Hebrew  at  L^nion  Theological  Seminary,  and  a  course  in 
the  Minor  Prophets  in  Hebrew  at  Chicago  University. 
His  university  courses  included  studies  in  Sociology  and 
History  at  Columbia  and  New  York  Universities.    The 


30  EDWARD   JUDSON,    INTERPRETER   OF   GOD 

example  he  set  in  taking  postgraduate  study,  though  beset 
by  clamorous  duties,  led  other  ministers  to  pursue  similar 
courses.  The  writer  is  grateful  for  such  an  influence  in 
his  own  life. 

Doctor  Judson's  desire  for  definite  teaching  in  college 
or  seminary  would  not  down.  During  his  ministry  at 
North  Orange  and  the  early  years  of  his  life  in  New 
York  City,  he  denied  the  impulse,  but  when,  in  1897,  he 
was  invited  to  act  as  Instructor  in  Pastoral  Theology  in 
the  Theological  Seminary  of  Colgate  University,  he 
yielded.  During  the  winter  term  he  gave  lectures  on 
"  Church  Organizations  and  Work  and  Pastoral  Duties," 
but  preached  in  his  own  pulpit  on  Sundays.  He  was  the 
more  willing  to  do  this  because  it  brought  some  financial 
relief  to  the  Memorial  Church  which,  from  about  that 
time  until  the  day  of  his  death,  presented  financial  prob- 
lems difficult  to  meet. 

The  welcome  which  he  received  in  Hamilton  is  fittingly 
expressed  by  his  friend,  Dr.  William  N.  Clarke : 

You  will  be  welcome  to  our  fellowship  and  affection,  and 
an  open  door  of  useful  service  will  be  before  you  here.  I  shall 
personallj'  enjoy  having  you  near,  for  it  will  give  me  a  fresh  sense 
of  present  fellowship  that  will  be  grateful  to  my  heart. 

Edward  Judson  gave  this  charming  picture  of  the  home 
which  at  that  time  he  established  in  Hamilton: 

I  have  a  rambling  old  frame  house  up  in  Hamilton — a  kind 
of  shell  into  which  I  can  withdraw  when  I  grow  old.  It  is 
pleasant  to  have  a  little  place  to  which  to  retire  when  New  York 
has  little  by  little  squeezed  the  juice  out  of  me  like  an  orange, 
leaving  nothing  but  the  acrid  rind.  In  front  of  the  house  is 
a  pretty  little  lawn,  and  back  of  it  a  yard,  where  stand  some 
ancient  apple  trees,  and  back  of  all  is  an  old  ramshackle  bam, 
where  the  pigeons  make  their  nests.  Now  these  old  apple 
trees  are  very  interesting.  In  the  early  spring  they  seem 
dead.     The  boughs  and  twigs  are  bare,  but  after  a  little  while 


SCHOLAR,    TEACHER,    AND   EDUCATOR  3 1 

there  come  leaf-buds ;  these  unfold,  and  the  trees  are  clothed 
with  leaves.  Then  the  beautiful  blossoms,  then  the  falling  of 
the  petals,  and  then  is  left  the  tiny  green  fruit.  The  leaf  always 
comes  first,  then  the  blossom,  then  the  fruit. 

lie  once  found  himself  an  intruder  in  his  own  home : 

In  the  early  summer,  a  robin  came  and  built  her  nest  in 
the  porch  of  my  little  country  cottage.  The  place  had  been 
left  unoccupied  during  the  winter  and  spring.  When  I  dis- 
covered her  advent,  I  was  much  pleased  that  she  had  chosen 
my  little  house  for  her  home.  She  had  already  laid  four  eggs 
in  her  nest— the  hostages  of  fortune.  I  began  at  once  to 
form  plans  for  cooperating  with  her  domestic  economy.  There 
soon  w'ould  be  four  great  yellow  mouths  wide  open  and  clamor- 
ous for  nourishment.  I  would  put  food  close  at  hand.  The 
mother  bird  would  not  have  to  make  long  and  laborious  foraging 
expeditions.  What  do  you  suppose  that  robin  did?  Directly 
she  became  aware  of  my  return  she  deserted  her  nest.  Nothing 
would  bring  her  back.  She  sat  in  a  near-by  tree,  sullen  and 
suspicious,  and  allowed  her  nest  with  all  its  precious  freight 
to  lapse  into  ruin.  She  would  not  trust  me,  so  I  could  do  noth- 
ing for  her.  Poor  human  nature  finds  it  just  as  hard  to  trust 
God,  and  yet  we  shall  never  learn  to  love  him,  except  as  we 
acquiesce  in  a  relation  of  perfect  dependence  upon  him,  so  that 
he  shall  have  his  way  through  us. — An  extract  from  a  sermon. 

Doctor  Judson's  ability  as  teacher  was  soon  recognized 
in  a  signal  manner  by  three  strong  educational  institu- 
tions. By  each  of  these  recognitions  he  was  compelled 
to  make  a  decision  quite  as  difficult  as  when  he  relin- 
quished teaching  to  go  into  the  Christian  ministry,  or 
when  he  surrendered  his  protected  pastorate  in  North 
Orange  to  devote  himself  to  social  missionary  service  in 
lower  New  York  with  neither  adequate  personal  support 
nor  equipment  for  his  work. 

During  the  academic  year  ending  in  June,  1898,  he 
was  earnestly  sought  as  president  of  Brown  University, 
his  alma  mater,  and  also  by  Colgate  University. 


32  EDWARD   JUDSON,    INTERPRETER   OF   GOD 

In  July,  1898,  a  member  of  the  faculty  of  Brown  Uni- 
versity wrote: 

And  the  one  thing  that  I  desire  for  the  future,  as  I  have 
desired  it  and  have  expressed  my  desire  for  years,  from  before 
Doctor  Robinson's  resignation,  is  that  you  shall  be  the  president 
of  Brown  University.  I  believe  that  you  and  the  position  have 
been  preparing  for  each  other.  I  want  to  tell  you  that  a  host 
of  people  will  rejoice  to  have  you  here.  I  know  the  faculty, 
and  I  am  sure  that  you  will  have  their  cordial  and  earnest 
support.  The  alumni  will  give  you  hearty  welcome;  and  I  am 
sure  that  no  man  can  expect  so  much  from  them  as  you  may  be 
justified  in  expecting.  I  don't  desire  to  see  your  great  work 
in  New  York  suffer,  but  I  hope  that  the  time  has  come  when  it 
will  not  be  imperiled  if  you  can  lay  it  on  others  and  come  over 
to  a  great  work  here. 

That  strong  pressure  was  brought  to  bear  upon  him 
not  only  by  the  faculty,  but  also  by  the  members  of  the 
corporation,  is  evident  from  the  following  letter  from  a 
prominent  member  of  that  body  under  date  of  the  same 
year: 

I  am  in  receipt  of  your  kind  letter  of  the  eleventh,  and  am 
filled  with  disappointment  at  its  contents.  I  have  sent  it  to 
Doctor  Hovey,  the  chairman  of  our  committee,  who  will  reply 
direct.  In  the  meantime,  I  wish  I  could  see  some  ray  of  hope 
in  the  direction  the  entire  corporation  and  faculty  of  Brown 
University  have  been  looking. 

I,  with  others,  have  had  my  heart  set  on  seeing  you  at  the 
head  of  that  university,  especially  during  the  time  that  my 
own  boys  are  being  educated  there,  but  if  it  is  not  to  be,  it  is 
not.  If  you  are  open  to  argument,  however,  I  could  give  you 
many  reasons  why  you  should  not  turn  this  down. 

Another  member  of  the  corporation,  who  had  written 
earlier  in  the  year,  wrote,  "  I  beg  you  to  come  to  Brown." 

He  was  as  earnestly  sought  for  the  presidency  of 
Colgate  University  during  the  latter  part  of  the  academic 
year  of  1898.  The  following  memorial  was  presented 
by  the  members  of  the  university  faculty : 


SCHOLAR,    TEACHER,    AND   EDUCATOR  T,;^ 

To  the  Rev.  Edward  Jiidson,  D.  D.,  New  York: 

The  undersigned,  members  of  the  faculty  of  Colgate  University, 
do  most  sincerely  and  urgently  request  that  you  will  favorably 
consider  the  overtures  made  to  you  by  our  trustees,  with  refer- 
ence to  your  becoming  our  president.  We  are  of  one  mind  in 
the  desire  that  you  may  become  president  of  Colgate  Universitj^, 
and  in  support  of  this  desire  and  request  we  would  urge  the 
following  considerations : 

We  are  convinced  that  you  have  exceptional  power  to  unite 
the  working  forces  of  the  universit>%  including  trustees,  faculty, 
and  students,  and  at  the  same  time  to  represent  and  commend  us 
abroad,  and  hold  the  favor  and  support  of  our  friends  everywhere. 

We  plainly  see  that  there  is  ample  work  for  you  here,  worthy 
of  your  best  abilities  and  offering  large  opportunities  of  use- 
fulness. A  noble  service,  both  educational  and  religious,  awaits 
you  if  you  come  to  us. 

Our  call  to  you  is  the  expression  of  a  real  need,  for  we  are 
suffering  for  want  of  an  executive  head,  and  are  certain  hence- 
forth to  suffer  still  more  if  we  do  not  obtain  one ;  and  we 
see  in  you  the  man  that  we  want. 

For  these  reasons  we  wish  you  to  come  to  us,  and  we  trust 
that  in  all  this  you  may  see  providential  indications  of  your  duty. 
Sincerely  hoping  for  a  favorable  result,  we  are,  etc. 

This  was  signed  by  every  member  of  the  facuky  except 
three;  two  of  these  were  absent  and  the  third  had  re- 
signed, but  two  of  these  three  sent  personal  letters.  One 
member  of  the  faculty,  eminent  in  his  department,  wrote 
under  date  of  >\Iay  first : 

Will  you  permit  me  to  tell  you  in  a  more  private  and  per- 
sonal way  how  genuine  and  cordial  is  the  petition  which  has 
come  to  you  from  the  members  of  our  faculty.  The  unsettled 
conditions  of  the  past  years  press  home  the  demand  for  a  head, 
not  less  for  aggressive  administration  than  that  his  presence 
and  spirit  may  filter  down  through  all  that  share  the  life  of  the 
university.  You  would  be  such  a  president.  In  the  utmost  sin- 
cerity and  freedom,  may  I  tell  you  this.  Your  knowledge  of 
our  history,  your  love  of  this  place,  your  gentleness,  toleration, 
and  firmness,  and  the  universal  respect  of  the  churches  of  our 
name  for  you,  fit  you  for  us  in  a  singular  way.    I  do  not  know 


34  EDWARD   JUDSON,    INTERPRETER  OF   GOD 

of  any  one  to  whom  the  faculty  turn  with  so  much  harmony 
as  to  you. 

The  following  letter  from  Dr.  William  N.  Clarke  re- 
liects  the  intimacy  of  the  two  men,  and  makes  it  quite 
clear  that  many  of  Doctor  Judson's  friends  felt  that  he, 
Mrs.  Judson,  and  their  daughters  had  filled  to  the  full 
the  measure  of  their  sacrifice  and  that  he  ought  in  his 
last  years  to  devote  himself  to  work  that  w^ould  be  less 
rigorous  in  its  demands. 

The  period  of  heaviest  sacrifice  in  your  enterprise  in  New 
York  is  now  past.  The  heaviest  of  the  sacrifice  of  that  period 
has  been  made  by  you  and  by  your  family.  No  one  else  has 
sacrificed  anything  like  as  much  as  you  and  your  wife  and 
children.  To  a  friend  and  lover  outside,  it  looks  as  if  enough 
had  gone  from  that  quarter  into  the  enterprise,  or  at  least  as 
if  you  four  would  be  justified  in  taking  up  some  other  worthy 
service,  and  trusting  that  enterprise  to  other  hands.  Some  one 
else  will  have  to  take  it  by  and  by,  as  a  matter  of  course,  and 
to  me  it  seems  that  now  is  the  time. 

Besides,  we  want  you,  just  you  yourself,  and  not  another.  So 
come  along,  and  give  us  your  hand,  and  do  us  good.  We 
want  you  immensely  and  we  don't  want  to  take  no  for  an 
answer.    Don't  let  me  have  to  speak  to  you  again. 

It  was  quite  another  plea  that  came  from  Doctor  Jud- 
son's associates  in  New  York.  He  had  put  his  hand  to 
the  plow,  and  could  not  turn  back.  Mr.  George  Well- 
wood  ]\Iurray,  a  lawyer  of  high  standing,  secretary  of 
the  board  of  trustees  of  the  Memorial  Church,  who, 
actuated  by  the  same  motive  as  Doctor  Judson,  had  stood 
for  long  years  by  his  side,  wrote  under  date  of  May 
thirty-first : 

Your  recent  letter  has  filled  me  with  dismay  and  foreboding. 
I  do  not  for  an  instant  doubt  your  perfect  sincerity  in  believ- 
ing that  3^ou  could  conduct  the  proposed  new  work  at  Hamilton 
and  the  old  work  at  New  York  at  the  same  time,  but  I  am  satis- 
fied that  in  this  you  are  mistaken.     And  what  would  become 


SCHOLAR,    TEACHER,    AND    EDUCATOR  35 

of  the  Memorial  Church,  either  on  its  spiritual  side  or  its 
financial  side,  I  do  not  know  and  fear  to  contemplate!  I  know 
very  well,  and  I  think  appreciate  fully,  the  forces  that  would 
draw  you  to  the  work  at  Hamilton.  It  is  an  entirely  honorable 
work,  and  I  can  well  understand  that  educational  work  would 
be  in  accordance  with  your  own  tastes.  But  here  lies  this  church, 
humanly  speaking,  absolutely  your  own  creation.  Many  of  us 
think  that  it  embodies  the  solution  of  a  mighty  problem.  It  is 
largely  the  expression  of  your  own  individuality.  I  do  not 
believe  that  3-ou  can  afford  to  leave  it. 

His  long-time  associate,  the  Rev.  James  AI.  Bruce, 
wrote  just  at  that  time  with  no  less  feehng  and  convic- 
tion : 

I  can  well  understand  the  attractions  which  the  latter  position 
has  for  3-ou.  At  the  same  time,  when  I  call  up  before  my  mind's 
eye  that  superb  property  that  you  have  acquired  and  created 
at  the  historic  New  York  Square,  and  in  a  locality  where  it 
stands  for  so  much  that  is  grandest  in  missionary  achievement, 
the  position  of  its  presiding  and  inspiring  head  seems  to  me 
one  that  any  man  might  be  glad  to  give  all  his  life  to,  all  his 
life  long.  With  what  it  involves  in  the  way  of  molding  and 
impelling  influence  for  similar  endeavor,  it  is  in  my  estimation 
a  greater  and  more  distinguished  post  than  the  other. 

Feeling  unable  to  leave  his  own  peculiar  task,  and 
being  greatly  drawn  to  the  presidency,  he  thought  seri- 
ously of  accepting  the  latter,  though  continuing  as  pastor 
of  the  Memorial  Church,  but  on  June  7,  1898,  in  a  letter 
to  Mr.  James  C.  Colgate,  with  characteristic  self-sur- 
render, he  gave  up  the  opportunity. 

I  hasten  to  send  you  my  final  decision,  and  I  must  say  I  do 
so  with  the  greatest  reluctance  and  even  sorrow.  I  do  not  see 
my  way  clear  to  accept  the  presidency  even  with  the  proviso  that 
I  could  hold  at  the  same  time  pastoral  relations  with  my  church 
here.  I  have  really  been  very  strongly  drawn  toward  Colgate 
by  many  threads  of  interest  and  aflFection,  and  while  I  have 
almost  constantly  thought  upon  this  subject,  I  could  not  for  the 
life  of  me  make  up  my  mind  before.  Even  now  I  cannot  thor- 
oughly analyze  the  motives  which  compel  me  to  decline  these 


36  EDWARD   JUDSON,    INTERPRETER   OF   GOD 

overtures  from  yourself  and  the  professors  at  Hamilton.  I 
can  only  say  that  the  general  impression  made  by  all  my  thinking 
on  the  subject,  is  that  while  I  may  be  more  wanted  there,  1  am 
more  needed  here.  .  .  It  has  formed  a  turning-point  in  my 
life,  and  my  indecision  has  been  deeply  sincere.  I  cannot  tell 
you  how  profoundly  happy  it  makes  me  to  be  wanted  in  Hamilton. 

If  in  the  following  chapters  the  reader  comes  to  see 
something  of  the  "  blood-spitting  struggle "  (to  use  a 
phrase  of  Doctor  Judson's)  which  was  involved  in  these 
decisions  to  stand  by  the  Memorial  Church  and  its  prob- 
lems, he  will  understand  something  of  its  cost  and  sig- 
nificance. 

Doctor  Judson's  teaching  ability  was  again  recognized, 
this  time  by  Chicago  University,  when,  in  1903,  he  was 
elected  to  the  chair  of  Homiletics  in  the  Divinity  School. 
Doctor  Judson  explained  this  new  relationship  as  follows : 

I  arranged  with  President  Harper  to  serve  as  head  of  the 
Department  of  Homiletics  during  two  quarters  of  two  successive 
years,  1904  and  1905,  with  the  understanding  that  at  the  end  of 
that  time  I  was  to  face  the  question  of  giving  up  my  work  in 
New  York  and  devoting  myself  exclusively  to  the  interests  of 
the  seminary. 

He  was  the  more  ready  to  enter  into  the  relation  be- 
cause of  the  condition  of  his  health.  He  had  been  granted 
a  leave  of  absence  from  his  church  to  take  a  year  of  rest 
in  Europe.  He  cut  his  sojourn  short  to  take  up  this  new 
service.  True  to  his  conviction  that  theological  educa- 
tion should  be  accompanied  by  practical  service  under 
direction,  he  became  acting  pastor  of  the  Parkside  Branch 
of  the  Lexington  Avenue  Baptist  Church  that  he  might 
have  a  clinic  in  which  to  train  his  students.  But  again 
the  call  of  imperative  duty  brought  him  back  to  New 
York.  The  secretary  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  his 
church  in  August,  1903,  made  this  urgent  appeal: 

Shutting  my  eyes  on  the  Memorial  for  the  moment,  I  can  see 
much  to  be  said  for  the  professorship.    It  is  a  position  of  honor, 


SCHOLAR,    TEACHER,    AND    EDUCATOR  3/ 

of  great  usefulness,  congenial,  I  think,  and  in  which  I  have 
no  doubt  you  will  meet  with  great  success  and  do  much  good. 
Of  course  I  note,  and  am  glad  to  note,  the  two-year  period, 
and  recognize  your  desire  to  make  it  a  bridge — even  a  cantilever, 
which  may  be  pulled  back — but  two  things  occur  to  me.  Not  to 
speak  of  your  spiritual  commitment — a  matter  by  itself  and  of 
grave  importance^your  financial  commitment  (in  securing  gifts, 
annuities,  etc.)  has  been  so  great  morally  that  it  is  difficult  to 
see  how  you  can  get  your  shoulder  from  under  the  w'heel  until 
the  load  gets  lighter. 

The  Advisory  Board  of  the  church  felt  compelled  to 
take  this  action  under  date  of  May,  1904: 

With  our  present  light  it  seems  to  us  inevitable  that  the  spir- 
itual interests  of  the  church — its  growth  and  prominence  as  a 
living  force  in  the  redemption  of  lower  New  York — require 
your  presence  and  all  of  your  energies.  The  temporal  condition 
of  the  church  is  distinctly  worse  than  we  had  hoped  and  believed 
it  would  be.  In  a  w^ord,  we  cannot  at  present  prudently  sustain 
further  annuities,  and  therefore  probably  shall  not  be  able  to 
reduce  our  debt,  and  we  are  running  behind  in  our  expenses  at 
the  rate  of  about  $6,000  per  annum. 

Your  presence,  we  believe,  will  revive  the  work  on  every  hand. 
In  an  important  sense,  the  work  is  j^ours.  We  believe  that  your 
personality  is  so  identified  with  it  in  the  mind  of  the  church 
and  the  view  of  the  community  that  during  your  life  it  must  be 
led  by  you.  Facts  demonstrate  that  3'ou  cannot  successfully  lead 
it,  either  spiritually  or  financially,  at  such  a  distance  and  with 
energies  devoted  to  other  things. 

He  could  do  no  other  than  to  respond  to  this  appeal, 
but  the  full  import  of  his  decision  cannot  be  understood 
except  in  the  light  of  facts  brought  out  in  later  chapters. 

Referring  to  his  resignation.  President  Harper,  in 
August,  1904,  said,  "  I  wish  very  much  that  I  could 
talk  things  over  v^ith  you  before  you  reach  a  final 
conclusion."  The  official  action  of  the  university  is  re- 
corded in  Mr.  Goodspeed's  letter  of  July  twenty-ninth : 

With  great  regret  the  trustees  of  the  Theological  Union  of  the 
university  have  accepted  your  resignation.     They  wish  me  to 


38  EDWARD   JUDSON,    INTERPRETER   OF    GOD 

express  to  you  the  sense  they  have  of  the  very  great  value  of 
your  services  to  the  institution  during  the  two  years  of  your 
service.  The  difficulty  of  your  separating  yourself  from  your 
church  in  New  York  is  appreciated  by  the  trustees,  however, 
and  they  regretfully  assent  to  the  sundering  of  the  relations,  a 
separation  which  was  contemplated  as  possible  at  the  time  of 
your  original  appointment. 

The  severance  of  this  relation  was  dictated  by  a  severe 
sense  of  duty.  Doctor  Judson.  referring  to  his  life  in 
Chicago,  said : 

It  is  with  very  sincere  regret  that  I  relinquish  my  duties  in 
the  Divinity  School  of  the  University  of  Chicago.  I  have  greatly 
enjoyed  the  fellowship  of  the  ministers  in  the  Chicago  Conference 
and  elsewhere.  The  climate  of  Chicago  has  greatly  strengthened 
my  health.  In  connection  with  my  other  work  I  took  up  the 
study  of  the  Minor  Prophets  during  the  spring  quarter  in  one 
of  President  Harper's  classes,  and  was  deeply  impressed  by  his 
devotion  and  constructive  spirit.  Meanwhile  I  shall  not  lose  in 
lower  New  York  the  inspiration  of  the  thinking  done  here,  nor 
shall  I  soon  forget  the  winelike  breezes  swaying  the  boughs  of 
the  trees  and  making  the  leaves  incessantly  tremulous,  even 
during  the  hottest  days  of  summer.  I  am  to  take  up  similar 
work  in  connection  with  the  Divinity  School  at  Colgate  Univer- 
sity during  the  winter  and  spring  terms. 

His  deep  regret  at  the  necessity  of  leaving  Chicago  was 
softened  somewhat  by  his  satisfaction  in  entering  a  new 
relation  with  the  Theological  Seminary  of  Colgate  Uni- 
versity. Under  the  new  plan  his  own  church  was  used 
as  a  clinic  in  which  the  Colgate  theological  students 
received  training  under  his  direction.  Each  senior  class 
spent  the  winter  term  in  New  York,  while  Doctor  Judson 
was  in  residence  in  Hamilton  during  the  spring  term. 
These  extracts  from  his  introductory  lecture  to  his  course 
on  homiletics  show  something  of  his  analytical  powers, 
his  clear-cut  definition,  and  the  range  of  his  lectures: 

Homiletics  is  a  branch  of  rhetoric.  It  is  the  science  which 
treats  of  the  nature,  the  classification,  the  analysis,  the  construe- 


SCHOLAR,   TEACHER,   AND   EDUCATOR  39 

tion,  and  the  composition  of  the  sermon.  It  deals  with  the 
technique  of  the  art  of  preaching.  In  homiletics  I  give  three 
courses  during  the  year,  each  course  running  through  an  academic 
quarter. 

The  first  course  has  to  do  with  the  theory  of  sermon  production. 
We  pursue  five  practical  lines  of  effort. 

Each  day  I  give  a  familiar  lecture  on  the  subject.  The  lectures 
deal  first  with  the  making  of  the  minister,  and  secondly  with  the 
making  of  the  sermon.  Education  means  the  symmetrical  de- 
velopment of  the  whole  man.  The  making  of  the  minister 
involves  bodily  health,  which  is  conditioned  on  food,  air,  clean- 
liness, and  exercise;  also  mental  liealth,  which  is  achieved  not  by 
eager  striving  to  produce  some  notable  and  definite  effect,  but 
by  filling  up  each  day  with  systematic  occupation— reading  and 
writing,  study,  recreation,  and  exercise.  Also  social  health  is 
requisite. 

But  besides  bodily  health,  mental  health,  and  social  health,  the 
minister  needs  spiritual  health. 

(Further  reference  to  his  lectures  on  The  Making  of 
a  Minister  will  be  found  in  Chapter  VII.) 

When  we  come  to  the  making  of  the  sermon,  I  describe  the 
Ideal  Sermon,  showing  it  to  be  scriptural  and  extemporaneous 
and  illustrative  and  intelligible  and  positive  and  persuasive  and 
brief.  Then  I  take  up  sermon  production  itself,  and  consider 
the  selection  of  the  text,  the  selection  of  the  context,  the  gather- 
ing of  materials  through  the  study  of  the  versions,  the  study  of 
the  commentaries,  the  study  of  the  historic  background,  the 
search  for  illustrations  and  the  method  of  preserving  them.  I 
then  take  up  the  process  of  incubation,  the  emergence  of  the 
plan — subject  or  proposition,  introduction,  divisions,  subdivisions, 
conclusion.  I  show  how  to  conserv^e  the  results  of  our  study — 
first  the  loose  notes,  then  the  whole  sermon  on  a  single  page,  then 
the  full  outline,  then  the  written  sermon.  I  consider  the  final 
preparation  of  Saturday  and  Sunday,  and  the  Sunday  evening 
contemplation  of  the  work  achieved. 

But  besides  the  text-book  and  the  lectures,  my  students  and 
I  are  all  the  time  at  work  together  making  a  sermon,  which 
serves  to  illustrate  the  principles  which  I  teach. 

I  require  besides  a  certain  amount  of  collateral  reading — 
the  "Life  of  Phillips  Brooks,"  for  instance,  together  with  his 

D 


40  EDWARD   JUDSON,    INTERPRETER   OF   GOD 

"  Yale  Lectures  on  Preaching,"  and  the  student  is  required  to 
give  me  a  paper  in  which  he  embodies  the  results  of  his  reading. 

I  have  a  daily  social  hour  at  my  rooms.  The  students  are 
invited  to  come  and  see  me,  and  after  a  cup  of  tea  we  read 
aloud  together,  on  Tuesday  the  sermon  of  some  great  preacher, 
on  Wednesday  we  read  from  Shakespeare,  on  Thursday  from  the 
Bible,  and  on  Friday  from  devotional  literature,  as  Augustine's 
"  Confessions,"  Thomas  a  Kempis,  and  also  from  some  of  the 
modern  mystics. 

My  second  course  in  homiletics  has  to  do  not  so  much 
with  the  theory  of  sermon-making  as  with  the  actual  construc- 
tion of  sermons. 

The  main  part  of  our  work  consists  in  producing  sermons 
together,  the  class  choosing  the  texts.  During  the  quarter  just 
closed  the  students  elected  first,  out  of  the  miscellaneous  subjects. 
Obedience  to  the  Heavenly  Vision.  Then  a  miracle  was  taken, 
The  Stilling  of  the  Tempest;  then  a  parable,  The  Prodigal  Son; 
then  a  psalm,  the  Ninety-first  Psalm;  then  a  moral  subject,  Tem- 
perance; then  a  doctrinal  subject,  the  Atonement,  which  natu- 
rally suggested  a  series  of  sermons  upon :  Man's  Sinfulness,  God's 
Love,  the  Incarnation,  the  Sinless  Sufferer,  Repentance,  Faith, 
Divine  Forgiveness,  or  Justification,  the  Believer's  Conformity 
to  Christ,  or  Sanctification. 

Along  with  these  studies,  we  have  had  for  the  most  of  the 
time,  teacher  and  student  together,  a  kind  of  homiletical  clinic 
or  laboratory,  going  in  a  body  to  a  meeting  either  at  some  church 
or  at  a  mission,  one  of  the  students  preaching,  and  the  rest 
promoting  the  interest  of  the  service  with  their  best  efforts.  At 
a  session  of  the  class  on  the  following  day  the  sermon  preached  is 
thoroughly  criticized  by  the  class  and  by  the  teacher,  as  regards 
its  logical  structure,  its  rhetorical  features,  the  delivery,  the 
pulpit  deportment  of  the  preacher,  etc. 

Yet  one  other  school,  of  high  academic  rank,  was  to 
register  its  confidence  in  Doctor  Judson's  ability  as  a 
teacher.  In  October  he  was  chosen  to  give  a  course  of 
lectures  to  the  Baptist  students  in  the  Union  Theological 
Seminary  on  "  The  Distinctive  Principles  of  Baptists." 
Referring  to  the  attitude  of  the  faculty,  Doctor  Sanders, 
through  whose  generosity  the  lectureship  was  estab- 
lished, said  (October  25,  1905),  "You  are  not  persona 


SCHOLAR,    TEACHER,    AND   EDUCATOR  4I 

grata,  but  gratlssima."    Acting  President  Dr.  George  W. 
Knox,  in  a  letter  to  Doctor  Judson,  said: 

I  feel  like  congratulating  the  seminary  very  warmly  upon  this 
new  and  most  significant  departure,  and  I  am  very  grateful  to 
you  and  to  Doctor  Sanders.  If,  as  you  suggested  in  your  remarks, 
it  is  something  remarkable  that  a  seminary  founded  by  one 
denomination  should  welcome  men  of  another,  it  is  at  least  as 
remarkable  and  truly  Christian  that  men  should  be  ready  to  give 
freely  as  you  and  Doctor  Sanders  give  to  an  institution  of  a 
different  name.  What  a  beautiful  symbol  it  is  of  the  good  time 
to  come  when  we  shall  be  neither  of  Paul  nor  Cephas  nor  Apollos, 
but  one  with  Christ. 

At  the  close  of  the  )'ear  Doctor  Knox  expressed  the 
hearty  appreciation  of  the  faculty  and  of  the  students 
of  the  work  which  Doctor  Judson  had  done.  This  rela- 
tionship continued  through  the  next  academic  year,  after 
which  Dr.  Harry  E,  Fosdick  was  appointed  to  succeed 
Doctor  Judson  (eventually  entering  into  a  full  professor- 
ship). 

While  Doctor  Judson  rendered  large  service  as  a 
teacher,  lecturer,  and  professor  during  sixteen  years  of  the 
forty-nine  which  elapsed  between  his  graduation  from 
Brown  University  and  his  death,  his  influence  in  the  field 
of  education  was  by  no  means  confined  to  his  personal  ser- 
vice in  the  classroom.  The  arrangement  which  he  made 
for  the  senior  class  of  the  Colgate  Theological  Seminary 
to  study  social  conditions  under  direction  has  become  a 
permanent  one — a  notable  recognition  of  the  principle  for 
which  he  stood  so  strenuously — that  theological  study 
should  be  accompanied  by  study  of  social  conditions  and 
ameliorative  efforts,  and  as  far  as  possible  by  practical 
work  tinder  direction.  He  had  large  influence  in  the 
establishment  of  the  Italian  Department  of  Colgate  Uni- 
versity. In  writing  to  Dr.  Hinton  S.  Lloyd  in  February, 
1906,  referring  to  a  conversation  which  he  had  had 
with  Rev.  Antonio  Mangano,  he  said : 


42  EDWARD    JUDSON,    INTERPRETER   OF   GOD 

I  find  that  he  (Mr.  Mangano)  is  very  hospitable  to  our  plan  of 
a  combined  Italian  training-school  and  mission  in  our  church,  the 
school  being  a  branch  of  the  Hamilton  Theological  Seminary,  like 
the  German  department  at  Rochester  and  the  Scandinavian  de- 
partment at  Chicago,  and  the  mission  being  a  branch  of  our  work, 
but  serving  as  a  laboratory  or  clinic  to  the  school.  Nothing 
could  be  more  timely,  as  all  our  denominational  societies  are  in 
danger  of  muddling  the  immense  and  exigent  Italian  problem 
through  the  lack  of  an  educated  Italian  ministry.  A  divinity 
school  of  this  kind  will  shape  the  character  of  Italian  Baptist 
churches  in  this  country. 

This  school  was  estabHshed  at  the  Dietz  Memorial  in 
Brooklyn,  not  at  the  Memorial  Church — another  of  the 
many  times  when  Doctor  Judson  was  brought  to  the 
border-land  of  the  realization  of  some  hope  or  ideal, 
and  was  forbidden  to  enter. 

It  was  Doctor  Judson's  great  desire  that  a  Baptist 
iheological  seminary  should  be  established  in  New  York 
City.  He  felt  that  through  it  the  Baptist  forces  in  New 
York  would  be  better  prepared  to  join  with  those  of  the 
other  communions  in  meeting  the  critical  demands  of  the 
metropolis.  He  made  repeated  efforts  to  effect  the  trans- 
fer to  New  York  City  of  either  Rochester  Seminary  or  of 
the  Theological  Seminary  of  Colgate  University,  and  in- 
deed endeavored  to  bring  about  the  consolidation  of  these 
two   schools   and   their   reestablishment  in   New   York. 

Aside  from  this  influence  on  theological  education 
Doctor  Judson  sustained  an  important  relation  to  the 
development  of  Vassar  College  and  Brown  and  Colgate 
Universities.  He  served  as  trustee  of  Vassar  from  1888 
to  1914,  the  date  of  his  death.  During  the  last  few 
weeks  of  his  life  he  rendered  active  service  on  the  com- 
mittee appointed  to  nominate  a  president  for  that  institu- 
tion. He  served  as  trustee  of  Brown  University  from 
1880  to  1907,  and  as  a  fellow  from  1907  to  the  time  of 
his  death.     He  was  trustee  of  Colgate  University  from 


SCHOLAR,    TEACHER,   AND   EDUCATOR  43 

1 90 1  till  1906,  when  he  resigned,  because  of  his  election 
to  a  professorship.  He  received  the  following  academic 
degrees :  Bachelor  of  Arts,  Brown  University,  1865  ;  Mas- 
ter of  Arts,  Brown  University,  1868;  Doctor  of  Divinity, 
Colgate  University,  1881. 

As  an  organizer  he  never  lost  sight  of  the  educational 
significance  of  his  social  creations.  For  example,  in  dis- 
cussing the  proposed  organization  of  the  Italian  School 
and  jMission,  he  said: 

We  would  not  need  to  aspire  to  bigness,  either  as  regards  school 
or  mission.  A  small  craft  built  on  fine  lines  will  outlive  a  big 
raft  in  anj-  storm.  The  school  must  be  a  model  to  the  denom- 
ination, and  the  mission  a  model  to  all  the  Italian  churches  and 
missions — a  model,  I  mean,  in  politj'  and  methods  of  self-support 
and  benevolence  (envelope  system,  etc.),  in  music,  in  service,  in 
evangelism,  in  conditions  of  church-membership,  etc. 

I  would  not  be  in  favor  of  taking  into  our  school  any  students 
except  men  of  strong  character  and  brilliant  abilities,  for  the 
school  must  never  become  an  asylum  for  dependents.  Our 
motto  should  be,  few  hut  fit. 

Never  for  success  or  favor  would  he  depart  from  his 
own  high  ideals.  He  thought  of  his  social  undertakings  as 
a  demonstration  for  other  institutions  and  as  a  clinic  for 
the  training  of  other  men.  In  him  the  pedagogic  sense 
was  highly  developed. 

The  persistence  of  the  teacher  instinct,  habit,  or  point 
of  view  throughout  the  whole  of  Edward  Judson's  life 
was  one  of  the  most  determining  factors  in  his  life  and 
work.  It  is  one  explanation  both  of  his  strength  and  of 
his  weakness  as  a  preacher  and  as  an  administrator. 


Ill 

PASTOR   AND   TREACHER 

The  minister  is  a  kind  of  artist.  Now  it  is  the  function  of 
art  to  transmute  the  fleeting  images  of  the  mind  into  im- 
perishable objective  forms,  which  the  appreciative  spirit  of 
man  can  seize  and  appropriate  for  all  time  to  come. 

Preaching  is  the  exudation  of  a  richly  nourished  nature  as  the 
fruit  is  the  overflow  of  the  tree  life. — Edward  Judson. 

IN  calling  Prof.  Edward  Judson  as  pastor,  the  North 
Orange  Baptist  Church  showed  fine  discernment.  It 
selected  one  who  in  later  years  was  generally  regarded 
as  a  preacher  of  rare  ability,  and  whose  standing  as  pas- 
tor and  preacher  was  recognized  by  two  theological  sem- 
inaries, which  sought  hiin  as  Professor  of  Homiletics. 

The  unrest,  which  he  had  expressed  in  his  letter  to  his 
sister,  found  expression  in  action  when  he  accepted  the 
call  of  the  North  Orange  Baptist  Church.  He  was  or- 
dained to  the  Christian  ministry  on  May  5,  1873 ;  the  or- 
dination sermon  was  preached  by  President  Dodge,  and 
the  hand  of  fellowship  was  given  by  his  half-brother,  the 
Rev.  George  Dana  Boardman,  D.  D. 

Though  Doctor  Judson's  official  connection  with  the 
North  Orange  Baptist  Church  lasted  but  six  years,  in 
a  real  sense  it  became  a  life  relationship.  He  was  re- 
garded with  the  greatest  affection  and  esteem  by  its 
members  to  the  day  of  his  death.  He  was  accustomed 
to  speak  at  the  annual  Children's  Day  Service  at  which  the 
Sunday  School  made  a  gift  of  flowers  to  the  children  of 
the  Memorial  Church.  Pie  counted  the  North  Orange 
people  among  his  staunchest  friends  and  supporters. 
Here  is  a  distant  echo  of  his  influence,  an  extract  from  a 
44 


EDWAkI)   JL'1)S(.)X 

PASTOR    OF     NORTH     ORANGE    CHURCH 


PASTOR   AXD   PREACHER  45 

letter  from  the  son  of  a  former  member  of  the  church, 
written  at  Redlands,  CaHfornia,  in  191 1 : 

You  must  derive  great  comfort,  Doctor  Judson,  from  the 
knowledge  that  there  are  so  many  persons  scattered  over  the 
country,  who  bless  you  for  the  help  you  have  been  to  them 
spiritually.  And  then  think  of  the  many  who  have  gone 
before  who  were  led  into  the  kingdom  by  you !  Among  them  is 
my  dear  father.  He  loved  you.  He  was  never  quite  reconciled  to 
your  giving  up  the  North  Orange  Church  pastorate. 

Those  who  succeeded  him  in  the  North  Orange  pas- 
torate testify  to  his  abiding  influence.  Dr.  William  M. 
Lawrence,  a  lifelong  friend,  says : 

As  one  of  those  who  succeeded  him  in  the  pastorate  at  North 
Orange  Church  I  had  occasion  to  have  this  impressed  on  me 
constantly.  Let  it  be  remembered  that  more  than  a  score 
of  years  passed  from  the  close  of  his  pastorate  to  the  begin- 
ning of  mine,  and  yet  he  was  as  influential,  as  much  beloved, 
and  his  services  were  as  much  sought  after  as  if  I  had  been 
his  immediate  successor. 

Dr.  Arthur  T.  Fowler,  now  pastor  of  the  church,  pays 
this  tribute : 

Thirty  years  ago  he  gave  up  the  pastorate  of  this  church  and 
closed  a  most  fruitful  ministry,  to  take  up  his  memorable  work 
in  New  York  City.  Through  all  this  period  his  influence  has 
been  felt,  and  he  has  been  held  in  the  highest  esteem.  His 
work  has  been  followed  with  prayers  and  increasing  influence. 
What  impressed  me  was  the  union,  the  rich  noble  blending, 
in  his  personality  and  hopes  of  exceedingly  diverse — in  some 
lines  opposing — qualities  and  forces.  "All  things  in  him  con- 
sist, hold  together,"  said  Saint  Paul  of  our  Lord. 

After  a  few  delightful  years  in  one  of  the  finest  resi- 
dence communities  in  America,  Edward  Judson  had  to 
face  his  third  great  life  decision;  this  decision  led  him 
to  surrender  his  congenial  surroundings,  his  ample  liv- 
ing, and  his  cherished  habits  of  study  to  devote  himself 
to  a  missionary  task  that  had  none  of  the  romantic  glamor 


46  EDWARD   JUDSON,   INTERPRETER   OF   GOD 

of  missionary  service  in  Asia  or  Africa,  nor  indeed  the 
recognition  accorded  to  pioneer  ministers  in  the  great 
West.  The  decision  was  the  more  difficult,  as  it  involved 
the  forced  surrender  of  social  and  cultural  advantages 
by  his  wife  and  daughters.  As  we  shall  see  in  a  fol- 
lowing chapter,  the  city  mission  field  was  one  that  was 
neglected,  and  to  it  few  strong  men  had  given  themselves. 
He  chose  to  relate  himself  to  a  struggling  down-town 
church  in  an  obscure  locality  with  nothing  to  commend 
it  but  its  opportunity  for  usefulness. 

There  could  be  no  question  that  the  Berean  Church 
had  called  him  to  lead,  and  he  could  serve  no  church 
where  he  was  not  recognized  leader.  Its  full  commit- 
ment to  him  is  reflected  by  the  call  of  the  church : 

New  York  City,  July  6,  1881. 

Dear  Brother  Judson:  We  enclose  to  you  the  action  of 
the  Berean  Baptist  Church,  at  a  special  meeting  held  this 
date.  The  proceedings  were,  first  the  reception  and  adoption 
o£  the  report  of  the  pulpit  committee.  Then  upon  the  suggestion 
of  the  chairman,  it  was  decided,  upon  motion,  to  proceed  at 
once  to  give  Brother  Edward  Judson  a  call  to  become  pastor 
of  our  church.  And  I  am  happy  to  state  that  the  result  was  a 
unanimous  request,  and  we  hope  that  you  feel  disposed  to  accept 
the  call.  In  reference  to  any  changes  you  deem  best  to  make, 
the  church  by  resolution  agreed  to  comply  with  any  reasonable 
request,  and  also  to  sympathize  and  cooperate  with  you  in 
j'our  labors.  In  our  present  reduced  condition  we  were  only 
able  to  secure  the  promise  of  one  thousand  dollars  a  year 
toward  your  support.  Hoping  soon  to  receive  a  favorable  reply, 
we  remain  with  much  respect  and  esteem,  your  brethren  in  Christ. 
On  behalf  of  the  committee, 

J.  A.  Houghton,  Secretary. 

His  full  commitment  to  the  church  was  finely  ex- 
pressed in  a  letter  he  wrote  a  few  years  later  on  his 
arrival  in  California  after  a  trip  abroad: 

During  the  long  journey  which  I  am  making  I  have  enjoyed 
so  far  most  excellent  health  and  have  received  many  tokens  of 


PASTOR   AND    PREACHER  47 

divine  grace.  Up  to  this  date  I  have  preached  only  three  times, 
so  that  I  am  having  a  good  rest.  I  v^^ant  you  to  feel  that  what- 
ever strength  and  information  I  may  gather  on  this  journey  will 
be  used  on  behalf  of  you,  my  dear  people,  to  whose  precious 
welfare  I  have  devoted  myself  body  and  soul. 

His  sacrificial  act  startled  and  amazed  Christian  lead- 
ers. They  had  been  accustomed  to  see  strong  men  con- 
tinue important  work  on  the  foreign  field,  but  never  had 
known  a  man  who  had  attained  eminence  in  an  influential 
church  voluntarily  to  surrender  its  leadership  and  to 
identify  himself  with  a  struggling  mission  interest  in  the 
city.  This  letter  from  an  acquaintance  in  New  Hamp- 
shire reflects  the  surprise  of  his  friends : 

March  9,  i88r. 

The  "Examiner"  came  this  afternoon,  bearing  a  copy  of  your 
pastoral  talk  of  last  Sunday.  Not  having  heard  the  slightest 
intimation  of  any  purpose  on  your  part  to  alter  your  ministerial 
relations  in  any  particular,  I  need  not  say  I  was  wholly  unpre- 
pared for  so  utter  a  renunciation  as  you  therein  announce.  My 
brother,  this  is  the  grandest  self-sacrifice  for  the  furtherance 
of  the  interests  of  God  and  man  alike  recorded  in  the  annals 
of  many,  many  years.  It  is  not  for  me  to  question  the  wisdom 
of  a  purpose  for  which  a  servant  and  son  of  God  is  willing  to 
give  up  so  much.  I  stand  amazed,  filled  with  awe  at  this  mag- 
nificent exhibition  of  apostolic  zeal.  The  son  of  Adoniram 
Judson  is  worthy  of  his  parentage.  The  call  is  mighty  when 
the  aflluence  of  your  present  surroundings  yields  to  it. 

Many  years  later  in  an  ordination  address,  without 
referring  in  any  way  to  his  own  experience,  he  said: 

It  would  be  a  reassuring  sign  of  the  times  if  the  cases 
were  not  so  scarce  of  ministers  laying  aside  the  responsibilities 
of  the  active  pastorship  in  influential  churches  not  in  order 
to  seek  out  some  sheltered  nook,  but  to  identify  themselves 
with  forlorn  causes,  where  the  social  currents  would  converge 
against  them,  and  where  their  wnsdom  and  experience  and 
ample  resources  would  count  the  most  for  the  advancement  of 
the  kingdom  of  God. 


40       EDWARD  JUDSON,  INTERPRETER  OF  GOD 

The  larger  significance  of  this  decision  to  the  social 
and  religious  life  of  New  York  City,  and  indirectly  to 
the  life  of  all  American  cities,  will  be  considered  in  later 
chapters.  It  was  as  a  social  prophet  and  leader  in  mission 
work  in  the  city  that  he  made  his  great  life  contribu- 
tion to  social  and  religious  progress,  yet  as  pastor  and 
preacher  he  attained  distinction  and  had  wide  influence. 

His  high  estimate  of  the  pastor's  office  grew  out  of  his 
conception  of  the  place  of  the  church  in  the  kingdom  of 
God,  and  particularly  the  place  of  the  local  church.  He 
says : 

The  Christian  finds  himself  within  the  large  embrace  of  three 
concentric  horizons.  The  uttermost  is  the  spiritual  church,  that 
vague  and  majestic  conception  which  ghmmers  here  and  there 
in  Holy  Scripture,  and  reminds  us  that  our  souls,  whether 
dwelling  on  this  green  earth  or  in  any  other  world,  who  turn 
reverently  and  obediently  toward  what  light  they  have,  belong 
to  one  flock  and  have  one  shepherd. 

Again,  there  is  a  second  religious  horizon  that  environs  us, 
less  remote  and  more  definite.  Within  the  spiritual  church  we 
find  ecclesiastical  crystallizations  with  one  or  another  of  which 
each  one  of  us  has  come  somehow  or  other  to  be  identified. 
We  are  Romanist,  or  Anglican,  or  Wesleyan,  or  Baptist,  or 
Congregationalist,  or  Presbyterian.  These  several  organisms 
are  called  denominations  or  communions,  and  sometimes  in  loose 
but  popular  phrase,  but  with  slight,  if  any,  vestige  of  Scripture 
warrant,  churches. 

The  local  church  latitudes  our  innermost  ecclesiastical  horizon ; 
it  includes  those  believers  who  habitually  meet  together  for 
worship.  They  form  a  society  into  which  new  members  are 
initiated  by  baptism.  It  is  their  custom  at  stated  seasons  to  take 
the  bread  and  the  chalice  in  memory  of  Christ. 

They  remind  each  other  of  his  teachings,  and  they  praise  and 
adore  the  eternal  God  as  foreshortened  and  revealed  to  the 
human  consciousness  in  his  personality  and  character.  In  these 
ways  they  help  each  other  to  become  like  him.  Nor  is  this  all. 
They  endeavor  to  change  for  the  better  the  character  of  the 
circumjacent  community,  which  they  call  the  world,  by  bring- 
ing into  the  consciousness  of  individuals  those  great  truths  con- 


PASTOR   AND    PREACHER  49 

cerning  God,  and  duty,  and  the  future  life,  which  Christ  taught 
and  exempHfied.  This  they  accomplish  by  preaching,  by  private 
conversation,  by  the  symbohsm  of  the  sacraments,  and  especially 
by  their  blameless  and  disinterested  behavior,  which  reflects 
the  image  of  their  Master  as  the  rising  sun  is  mirrored  on  the 
glossy  surface  of  a  mountain  lake. 

In  his  address  as  president  of  the  American  Baptist 
Missionary  Union,  now  the  American  Baptist  Foreign 
Mission  Society,  held  in  Minneapolis,  Minnesota,  in  May, 
1887,  Edward  Judson  said: 

Christ  organized  a  church.  He  was  not  an  abstract  thinker. 
This  work  of  organization  is  hard  work.  It  is  one  thing  to 
dream  and  another  thing  to  realize.  Themistocles  said,  "  I  can- 
not fiddle,  but  I  can  make  a  small  town  grow  into  a  great  citj'." 
Christ  was  a  builder.  He  meant  that  his  church  should  contain 
the  potency  of  all  reform.  Christ  wrote  no  books.  He  organized 
a  society.  My  brethren,  if  you  would  do  something  worth  con- 
tinuing, then  work  along  the  line  of  the  local  church.  Work 
this  for  all  it  is  worth :  and  when  j'ou  die,  you  will  leave  some- 
thing that  shall  be  a  worthy  residuum.  I  have  about  made  up  my 
mind  to  be  connected  with  no  other  societies.  They  draw  off 
the  water  in  the  stream  before  it  comes  to  the  mill.  They  absorb 
energies  which  ought  to  flow  through  the  local  churches. 

His  conception  of  the  central  place  of  the  church  was 
fundamental.  This  is  clearly  stated  in  his  "  Institutional 
Church.'*'    Again  he  said  : 

We  ourselves  belong  to  a  social  age.  Almost  every  man 
whom  }-ou  meet  wears  some  kind  of  badge.  In  spite,  however, 
of  this  strong  social  trend,  the  community  as  a  whole  does 
not  become  more  compact  and  stable.  The  exclusive  societies 
and  clubs  into  which  the  rich  are  gathered  only  intensify  caste 
prejudice  and  antipathy.  So  that  the  social  instinct  which  seemed 
to  have  within  it  the  promise  of  cohesion  tends  ultimately 
to  disintegration.  Society  is  seamed  with  crevasses,  which  only 
widen  as  individuals  come  into  closer  social  contact.  It  would 
almost  seem  as  though  the  church  were  the  only  society  in  which 
human  units   can   cohere  on   a   common  plane — rich   and   poor. 


50  EDWARD   JUDSON,    INTERPRETER   OF    GOD 

prince  and  pauper,  the  learned  and  the  ilHterate.  All  races  and 
nationalities  meet  together  on  a  common  ground,  share  in  the 
same  aspirations,  struggles,  and  hopes.  This  was  the  glory  and 
miracle  of  the  primitive  church,  that  at  a  time  when  race  an- 
tipathy compared  with  ours  was  as  sunlight  unto  moonlight,  the 
middle  wall  of  partition  was  broken  down,  and  Jew  and  Greek 
shared  in  the  common  eucharistic  meal. 

His  emphasis  on  the  church  as  such,  his  conception 
of  the  church  as  a  divine  institution,  superseding  and 
overtowering  all  other  religious  and  social  institutions, 
his  attachment  to  a  formal,  stately  order  of  service,  lead 
some  to  call  him  a  "  High-churchman  " ;  but  he  was  far 
from  a  "  High-churchman  " ;  to  him  the  church  was  a 
very  simple  and  natural  organization.  In  the  ordina- 
tion address,  entitled  "  Holy  Order,"  he  gave  this  ex- 
position of  the  functions  of  the  church  and  the  office 
of  the  pastor : 

Or  it  may  be  an  aged  holy  woman  sitting  in  the  chimney-corner 
with  her  Bible  on  her  knee ;  or  some  venerable  deacon  perhaps 
grieving  for  the  affliction  of  Joseph,  like  the  saints  in  the  days 
of  Amos ;  or  even  some  little  child  like  Samuel,  whose  young 
heart  was  concerned  for  the  tabernacle,  where  the  ark  of  God  was, 
and  whose  ear  Jehovah  uncovered  in  those  gloomy  days  when 
the  word  of  Jehovah  was  precious,  as  there  was  no  frequent 
vision.  Heaven  has  not  seen  fit  to  set  apart  and  to  ordain  cer- 
tain men  as  organ-pipes  through  which,  however  foul  and  dusty, 
it  exclusively  transmits  the  grand  and  solemn  music  of  its 
oracles.  Not  the  laying  on  of  hands  makes  the  minister,  but 
his  own  feeling  of  concern ;  as  the  lookout  in  the  crow's-nest  of 
some  great  Atlantic  steamship  at  night  searches  the  dim  horizon 
for  the  lights  of  a  distant  vessel,  the  phantom  iceberg,  or  some 
dark,  low-lying  derelict,  while  the  passengers  take  their  ease 
below  the  decks.  The  human  mind  could  not  devise  a  more 
effective  way  to  retard  the  growth  of  Christianity  than  the 
promotion  of  the  universal  persuasion  that  the  grace  of  God 
can  find  its  way  to  the  hearts  of  men  solely  through  the  chan- 
nels of  a  select  few.  The  universal  priesthood  of  believers  is 
the  cardinal  doctrine  of  the  modern  church.  Every  true  Christian 
is  a  minister,  or  on   the  way  to  become  one.     Every  child  of 


PASTOR   AND    PREACHER  5 1 

God  should  aspire  to  be  graduated  out  of  tutelage  into  the 
mature  life  of  service.  As  in  military  hospitals  convalescents 
become  nurses,  so  in  the  religious  life  the  saved  become  saviors, 
and  in  saving,  are  saved. 

That  he  beheved  in  the  essential  democracy  of  the 
Christian  church  is  evidenced  by  these  words,  and  yet 
he  had  a  profound  belief  in  the  sacredness  and  the 
effectiveness  of  the  work  of  the  pastor.  His  conception 
of  the  high  office  of  pastor  was  reflected  in  his  writing, 
in  his  thorough  sermon  preparation,  and  in  his  work 
generally.  During  the  period  when  he  was  comparatively 
free  from  the  burden  of  the  church  debt,  and  could 
devote  himself  with  his  full  energy  to  his  own  church, 
he  defined  the  relation  of  the  pastor  to  the  Sunday 
School  : 

As  pastor,  I  try  to  be  present  as  regularly  at  the  Sunday 
School  as  at  any  other  church  service  on  Sunday.  With  us 
the  church  and  congregation  meet  together  on  Sunday  morning 
for  ivorship.  This  consists  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  prayer,  praise, 
and  the  unfolding  of  Scripture  by  the  pastor.  The  church  and 
congregation  meet  together  on  Sunday  afternoon  for  study. 
The  Bible  is  the  text-book.  The  pastor,  instead  of  unfolding 
a  passage  for  the  people  en  masse,  as  in  the  morning,  instructs 
the  people  through  teachers  whom  he  has  met  beforehand,  and 
whom  he  has  taught  both  the  lesson  and  how  to  teach  it.  The 
church  and  congregation  meet  together  on  Sunday  evening 
for  work,  especially  as  regards  the  outside  world.  Each  mem- 
ber of  the  church  is  expected  to  attend  regularly  at  least  two 
of  these  three  great  sen-ices. 

I  have  almost  come  to  think  that  in  some  cases  the  Sunday 
School  is  more  truly  and  primitively  the  church  than  the  church 
itself.  The  people  come  together  to  sing,  and  pray,  and  study 
the  Bible  under  the  instruction  of  unpaid  teachers,  the  more 
intelligent  and  spiritual  of  their  number,  and  in  this  way  they 
reproduce  almost  exactly  the  apostolic  ecclesia. 

The  superintendent  attends  to  the  details  of  organization,  while 
the  pastor  performs  the  function  of  teaching  through  the  teachers. 
The  two  offices  cannot  clash.  My  own  rule  is  to  hold  a  teachers' 
meeting  Thursday  night,  and  to  conduct  the  closing  exercises  of 


52  EDWARD   JUDSON,    INTERPRETER   OF   GOD 

the  school,  giving  the  children  a  sermonet  of  five  minutes  on 
the  lesson.  Out  of  the  study  of  the  lesson  there  usually  comes 
a  sermon  for  Sunday  night. 

Thus  he  exalted  the  teaching  function  of  the  pastor. 
At  the  morning  service  he  would  teach  the  saints,  in 
the  afternoon  the  young,  and  in  the  evening  the  un- 
converted.   As  a  preacher  he  was  preeminently  a  teacher. 

In  his  conception  of  the  pastoral  office  large  place  was 
given  to  persuasion,  to  what  is  commonly  called  evan- 
gelistic appeal.  It  is  not  frequent  that  one  essentially 
a  teacher  becomes  an  effective  evangelist.  Speaking  of 
Doctor  Judson's  experience  in  North  Orange,  Dr.  R.  T. 
Middleditch  said :  "  Revivals  of  great  power  were  en- 
joyed. Several  hundred  were  received  into  church- 
membership."  The  evangelistic  note  was  prominent  in 
his  Berean  Church  ministry  and  in  that  of  the  Memorial 
Church — the  name  assumed  by  the  church  when  it  moved 
into  the  Judson  Memorial  on  Washington  Square.  To 
the  end  of  his  ministry  he  laid  strong  emphasis  upon 
the  work  of  the  evangelist. 

This  evangelistic  ministry  was  sufficiently  extended 
to  have  a  vital  relation  to  the  development  of  the  de- 
nomination, both  in  the  quickening  of  the  individual 
churches  and  in  the  conversion  of  strong  men  and  women. 
In  February,  1914,  after  Doctor  Judson  had  given  a  lec- 
ture in  Dr.  Russell  H.  Conwell's  church  in  Philadelphia, 
Doctor  Conwell's  associate,  Rev.  !A.  E.  Harris,  wrote : 

I  think  it  is  exactly  tv^^enty-five  years  ago  this  very  week,  is 
it  not,  that  you  preached  a  series  of  revival  services  at  the  Olivet 
Church?  The  Lord  distinctly  called  me  into  the  ministry  through 
your  preaching.  You  did  not  know^  how  far  that  work  extended 
on  that  awfully  cold  night  in  1889. 

Few  men  have  had  such  large  opportunities  for  per- 
sonal influence  as  he.  This  influence  was  exerted  often 
quite  unconsciously,  at  other  times  by  definite  and  pains- 


PASTOR   AND   PREACHER  53 

taking  service.  Several  letters  have  been  received  from 
widely  scattered  points,  testifying  to  the  strong  im- 
pression which  he  made  at  a  casual  meeting.  If  it  is  true, 
as  Emerson  says,  that  to  meet  a  man  on  the  street  is 
to  make  a  mark  upon  him,  so  sensitive  is  one  life  to  an- 
other, a  train  of  inspiring  influences  was  left  by  Doctor 
Judson  in  his  contact  with  thousands.  One  testifies  that 
his  wife  had  learned  to  rely  upon  the  inspiration  she 
received  from  birthday  letters  year  after  year.  Mrs. 
James  M.  Bruce  gives  this  pathetic  but  inspiring  inci- 
dent. The  funeral  service  of  Edward  Judson  had  been 
over  but  a  few  hours  when  the  regular  Sunday-evening 
service  was  held  in  the  Memorial  Church.  At  the  close, 
a  poorly  clad,  lonely  young  woman  asked  for  the  pastor, 
whom  she  had  heard  preach  only  the  preceding  Sunday. 
She  was  told  that  he  had  passed  away  the  Friday  before. 
She  burst  into  tears  and  said,  "  I  thought  I  had  found  a 
friend." 

Doctor  Judson  was  a  charming  and  persuasive  letter- 
writer.  Many  letters  were  written  in  his  own  hand,  but 
many  also  by  ]\Irs.  Judson,  who  was  his  most  faithful  and 
gracious  amanuensis.  INIany  troubled  individuals  who 
had  never  known  him  personally,  wTote  for  spiritual  guid- 
ance. In  reply  to  an  inquiry,  regarding  the  mooted  ques- 
tion of  amusements,  that  he  had  received  from  a  young 
teacher  in  Texas,  he  wrote  a  long  letter  with  the  greatest 
care.    Among  other  things  he  said : 

Perhaps  it  is  just  as  well  that  I  have  postponed  the  answer, 
for  indeed  one  of  the  first  principles  taught  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment is  that  in  these  questions  of  casuistr>'  we  are  not  to  depend 
upon  others  for  an  answer,  but  to  train  our  conscience  by  keeping 
it  in  constant  use,  as  a  hunter's  eyesight  grows  keen  through  the 
sustained  effort  to  perceive  small  game  in  the  thick  woods.  The 
priestly  way  of  deciding  such  questions  one  for  another  causes 
the  moral  vision  of  the  one  who  seeks  counsel  to  be  impaired 
through  disuse  and  weak  dependence  upon  those  who  we  think 


54  EDWARD   JUDSON,    INTERPRETER   OF   GOD 

are  of  keener  sight  than  ourselves.  This  then  is  the  first  prin- 
ciple, namely,  that  we  decide  for  ourselves. 

The  second  condition  of  clear  vision  is  a  surrendered  will; 
that  is,  an  absolute  willingness  to  take  either  one  of  the  alter- 
native courses  that  seems  more  right.  "  Blessed  are  the  pure  in 
heart,  for  they  shall  see  God."  Our  self-will,  like  breath,  makes 
a  little  film  on  the  window-pane  so  that  we  cannot  see  clearly 
the  vision  of  beauty  that  lies  beyond. 

The  third  principle  is  that  we  are  not  to  take  any  course  until 
all  misgiving  concerning  it  is  cleared  up. 

In  the  fourth  place,  there  comes  in  the  principle  of  distinctive 
Christian  love.  This  is  something  which  is  almost  unknown 
among  worldlings,  and  enables  a  person  to  give  up  with  a  smile 
the  most  congenial  helpful  recreation,  if  by  so  doing  we  may 
save  those  from  engaging  in  it  to  whom  it  would  be  a  sin.  This 
principle  may  easily  be  overworked  by  an  enthusiastic  Christian, 
the  weaker  brother  being  put  upon  a  kind  of  throne  from  whence 
he  dominates  his  fellow  Christians. 

There  is  no  "  Thus  saith  the  Lord  "  that  I  know  of  concerning 
these  things  that  are  not  wrong  per  se,  but  Paul's  teachings 
are  illumined  by  general  principles  of  which  we  may  make  use, 
and  so  following  the  Word  and  guided  by  the  Spirit,  our 
inmost  purpose  being  to  obey,  we  shall  not  go  far  wrong  with- 
out priestly  control  exercised  over  us  by  those  who  have  gone 
before  us,  of  those  to  whom  we  instinctively  look  as  spiritual 
fathers. 

This  may  be  taken  as  typical  of  the  thoughtful  considera- 
tion shown  to  those  who  sought  his  spiritual  guidance, 
though  they  had  no  claim  upon  him. 

His  fine  instincts,  his  urbanity,  his  wide  training  and 
scholarship,  and  his  marked  pulpit  ability  made  him  a 
most  acceptable  college  preacher.  He  was  sought  by 
institutions  like  Chicago,  Cornell,  Brown,  Vassar,  and 
Wellesley ;  and  by  Union  and  Rochester  Seminaries.  Few 
men  touched  the  extremes  of  social  and  intellectual  life 
more  than  he.  He  had  that  clarity  of  thought,  simplicity 
of  utterance,  breadth  of  sympathy,,  and  deep  spiritual  dis- 
cernment which  permitted  him  to  minister  to  the  high  and 
to  the  low,  to  the  lettered  and  to  the  unlettered.     He 


PASTOR   AXD    PREACHER  55 

touched  that  common  human  element  to  be  found  in 
men  of  every  class  and  of  every  condition.  In  an  address 
he  once  said : 

Few  of  us  have  Joseph's  quick  perception  of  sorrow,  who 
looking  into  the  haggard  faces  of  his  two  fellow  prisoners,  the 
butler  and  baker,  asked  the  sj-mpathetic  question,  "  Wherefore 
look  ye  so  sadly  to-day." 

He  had  that  quick  sensitiveness  and  could  aptly  express 
his  feeling. 

Sought  by  many  educational  institutions,  he  was  equally 
in  demand  by  churches.  There  is  probably  no  church  in 
the  denomination  that  would  not  have  welcomed  him  as 
its  pastor.  While  he  seldom  referred  to  these  calls,  and 
never  I  believe,  in  his  church,  there  are  to  be  found  in 
his  files  letters  from  representatives  of  such  churches 
as  the  First  Baptist  Church  of  Rochester  (1884),  from 
the  Eutaw  Place  Church  of  Baltimore  (1895),  and  from 
the  First  Church  of  Providence  (1907). 

From  Providence,  his  friend  Professor  Poland  wrote, 
"  You  were  my  first  choice,  but  you  would  not  come." 
This  earnest  letter  was  received  in  1895  from  Baltimore : 

A  year  ago,  when  Doctor  Ellis  left  us,  the  one  thought  of  the 
committee  of  eleven  brethren,  to  whom  the  duty  of  recommend- 
ing his  successor  was  confided,  was  that  Dr.  Edward  Judson  must 
be  secured  if  possible.  You  could  not  then  see  how  the  leader- 
ship of  your  great  work  in  New  York  could  be  confided  to 
other  workers.  A  year  of  earnest  prayerful  looking  for  another 
minister  upon  whom  conviction  and  unanimous  choice  might 
unite  has  been  unavailing. 

A  well-known  layman  of  the  same  church  wrote : 

Of  course  your  letters  previously  received  had  left  us  no 
room  for  any  change,  but  at  the  same  time  we  did  not  feel 
that  we  could  accept  this  without  making  one  more  effort.  And 
now  that  this  has  failed  us,  we  are  forced  to  accept  your 
decision  for  the  present  at  least,  though  it  brings  to  us  the 
greatest  possible  disappointment  and  regret. 
E 


56  EDWARD   JUDSON,    INTERPRETER   OF   GOD 

This  letter  makes  it  quite  clear  that  while  churches 
reiterated  their  appeal  to  him,  they  did  so  clearly  under- 
standing his  attitude.  It  was  almost  at  the  beginning 
of  his  ministry  in  New  York,  when  he  had  limited  sup- 
port for  himself  and  for  his  work,  housed  in  cramped 
quarters,  that  this  urgent  invitation  came  from  Rich- 
mond, Virginia : 

Not  only  would  our  church  and  city  give  you  a  cordial  wel- 
come, but  the  Baptists  of  the  entire  South  would  rejoice  to 
have  you  in  this  position.  Your  influence  for  good  would 
extend  throughout  our  entire  brotherhood  North  and  South.  No 
field  in  the  South  presents  such  an  opportunity  of  usefulness 
as  this. 

The  writer  is  advised  that  just  after  Doctor  Judson  be- 
came pastor  of  the  Berean  Church  at  a  salary  inade- 
quate for  his  needs,  he  was  called  to  a  strong  church  in 
Albany.  In  spite  of  these  frequent  and  persistent  calls  he 
was  not  tempted  to  surrender  what  he  deemed  his 
great  life-task,  though  its  rigors  overtaxed  his  endurance 
and  finally  cut  into  his  very  life.  He  appreciated  his 
unanimous  election  by  the  Executive  Committee  of  the 
Northern  Baptist  Convention  to  preach  the  Convention 
Sermon  in  Boston  in  19 14  at  the  Judson  Centennial  and 
the  hundredth  anniversary  celebration  of  the  founding 
of  the  American  Baptist  Foreign  Mission  Society.  It 
was  a  deep  disappointment  to  him  that  he  was  physically 
unable  to  accept  the  appointment. 

One  may  well  shrink  from  attempting  to  characterize 
the  work  of  a  genius.  Such  was  Doctor  Judson  as  a 
preacher.  His  own  defense  of  preaching  gives  some  hint 
of  the  task  which  he  had  set  for  himself.  In  discussing 
the  striking  theme,  "  The  Unnecessariness  of  Preaching," 
he  said: 

Whether  there  is  any  real  value  in  the  objection  which  these 
words  contain  to  one  of  the  usual  methods  of  evangelistic  work 


PASTOR   AND    PREACH ER  5/ 

depends  on  the  defuiition  given  to  the  word  preaching.  If 
it  means  a  set  form  of  religious  discourse,  then  the  objection 
is,  in  many  circumstances,  a  valid  one.  But  if  it  means  a 
simple  conversational  st3le  of  conveying  gospel  truth,  as  one 
friend  would  talk  to  another,  making  statements  that  he  desires 
to  enforce  and  illustrate  in  an  unconventional  waj',  then  such 
preaching  cannot  be  dispensed  with  in  making  known  the  mes- 
sage of  salvation. 

He  decried  anything  of  a  sensational  character  in  the 
pulpit.  In  writing  to  a  friend  he  referred  to  "  the  fatal 
undertow  in  sensational  preaching."  He  would  not 
cheapen  his  art  to  catch  a  crowd.  An  unprejudiced  ob- 
server w'ith  critical  but  kindly  intent  may  give  truer 
estimate  of  him  than  one  who  saw  him  at  too  close  range 
to  get  a  perspective  and  knew  him  too  warmly  to  be 
dispassionate.  "  The  Watchman,"  of  July  4,  1901,  quotes 
this  statement  from  the  "  New  York  Sun  " : 

He  has  unmistakable  earnestness,  but  he  has  also  the  same 
manner  about  it  that  he  would  have  if  he  were  entertaining 
you  at  his  own  dinner-table.  He  goes  at  it  with  the  accent  of 
a  gracious  host  who  has  an  engaging  story  to  tell,  and  in  a 
minute  or  so  his  eyes  are  twinkling  and  his  face  has  a  broad 
infectious  smile  at  some  human  turn  he  is  giving  his  remarks. 
There  is  no  loss  of  dignity  in  this  habit,  but  it  aflfects  people 
diflferently;  I  suppose  everj-body  is  warmed  by  an  honest  smile, 
but  the  churl  doesn't  think  to  smile  back. 

Then  the  narrative,  of  which  a  large  portion  of  the  sermon  is 
made  up,  is  for  the  most  part  pure  literature.  A  limpid,  Anglo- 
Saxon  style  of  simple  words  it  is,  with  color  adroitly  produced 
not  by  troops  of  adjectives,  but  by  nouns  and  verbs  that  are 
single  metaphors  in  themselves.  This  is  the  last  degree  of 
imagination  in  style;  it  shows  a  mind  that  sees  its  own  thoughts 
as  pictures,  and  that  sees  facts  in  perspective.  Thus,  speaking 
of  the  talk  of  the  stranger  on  the  road  to  Emmaus,  which  was 
his  subject,  he  said,  "The  story  ran  on  in  ups  and  downs." 
After  illustration  of  this  statement  by  quotations  of  the  exulta- 
tion and  depression  of  feeling,  that  "story  of  ups  and  dowms" 
was  a  phrase  that  pinned  itself  in  the  mind. 

A  few  graphic  phrases  are  not  remarkable,  and,  on  the  other 


58  EDWARD   JUDSON,    INTERPRETER   OF   GOD 

hand,  an  unrestraint  of  picture  nouns  and  verbs  would  easily 
become  slush.  But  Judson  is  an  artist;  he  doesn't  slip  into 
kept  words;  he  knows  the  difference  between  unmuzzled  fancj' 
and  a  sane  imagination;  his  own  disciplined  imagination  is  in- 
exhaustible in  its  accurate  words. 

This  is  not  great  thinking;  I  don't  know  that  it  is  thinking 
at  all.  But  it  marks  a  faculty  that  gets  at  the  distinctions  of 
laborious  thought  by  a  spring.  It  is  a  seeing  true ;  it  is  a  seeing 
with  all  one's  personality  at  once.  If  Judson  were  not  a  preacher 
he  would  be  one  of  the  authors  to  whom  publishers  pay  pro- 
digious ro3'-alties. 

Nevertheless,  in  his  own  pulpit  on  Sunday  it  is  evident  that 
the  long  wear  and  disappointment  have  told  on  him.  There  he 
lacks  some  of  the  verve  that  he  has  in  other  pulpits.  After 
last  Sunday's  services  were  over  this  observer  experienced  the 
impression  that  Judson  was  tired,  not  in  body,  but  in  spirit. 

Perhaps  this  impression  is  not  quite  right;  if  correct,  it 
applies  only  to  his  sense  of  his  own  preaching,  certainly  not 
to  the  daily  work  of  the  Judson  institution,  for  in  announcing 
the  week's  program  his  voice  had  a  different  ring,  as  of  a 
fathomless  determination. 

We  are  fortunate  in  having  this  editorial  by  the  "  Mail 
and  Express"  of  February  15,  1902,  in  a  series  of  edi- 
torials on  "  City  Pastors  and  Their  Churches  " : 

He  at  any  rate  cultivates  the  field  well  and  zealously.  I  should 
call  him  a  man  of  spiritual  and  sympathetic  power  rather  than 
one  of  compelling  will  and  influence.  He  is  to  me,  as  estimated 
from  the  view-point  of  the  man  in  the  Sunday  pew,  a  man  of 
singular  attractiveness.  His  manner  before  his  congregation — 
I  cannot  say  in  the  pulpit,  for  he  has  no  pulpit — is  rather  diffident. 
He  does  not  preach  from  notes,  and  he  has  a  pleasing  and  almost 
deferential,  conversational  way  which  convinces  the  hearer  that 
the  sermon  is  entirely  extemporaneous — that  it  comes  from  the 
heart.  Yet  there  is  never  any  groping  for  an  expression,  and  never 
any  want  of  order  and  sequence  in  the  matters  presented.  .  . 

I  do  not  mean  that  there  was  the  slightest  indication  in  Doctor 
Judson's  discourse  that  he  had  failed  to  feel  rewarded  richly 
for  his  long  and  arduous  labors  in  this  city;  but  I  am  sure 
that  he  has  by  no  means  been  well  rewarded  in  the  earthy  sense, 
and  that  the  full  harvest  from  his  sowing  is  yet  to  be  reaped. 


PASTOR   A-ND    TREACHER  59 

Freaching  for  Edward  Judson  was  not  a  stage  perform- 
ance, not  a  literary  feat,  not  an  oratorical  effort;  it 
was  the  expression  of  personality — of  soul — playing 
upon  a  brain  well  nourished  by  careful  thought  and  en- 
riched by  wide  Christian  experience,  employing  a  well- 
disciplined,  richly  modulated  voice,  and  a  genial,  compel- 
ling presence.  He  sought  to  win  his  audiences  rather  than 
to  command  them.  His  method  was  expository,  his 
style  conversational,  but  dignified,  and  even  elegant. 
Wlien  his  burdens,  to  which  reference  will  be  made  in 
the  following  chapters,  came  to  be  crushing,  the  effects 
of  the  long  wear  and  tear  were  evident.  His  experience 
suggests  these  lines  from  ]\Iatthew  Arnold,  often  used 
by  Doctor  Judson : 

No,  'tis  the  gradual  furnace  of  the  world 
In  whose  hot  air  our  spirits  are  upcurled 
Until  they  crumble,  or  else  grow  like  steel, 
Which  kills  in  us  the  bloom,  the  youth,  the  spring, 
Which  leaves  the  fierce  necessity  to  feel, 
But  takes  away  the  power. 

This  evident  depression  toward  the  close  of  his  life 
robbed  his  preaching,  especially  in  his  own  pulpit,  of  some 
of  its  power  though  he  never  lost  his  charm  of  simplicity, 
his  c^uiet  earnestness,  his  "  sweet  reasonableness,"  his 
clarity  of  thought  and  purity  of  diction.  He  says,  "  A 
vote  of  thanks  was  given  to  Lord  Macaulay  for  having 
written  a  history  that  the  w^orking  man  could  under- 
stand."   This  tribute  may  be  paid  to  his  preaching. 

While  his  sermons  were  illumined  with  quaint  humor, 
he  never  used  what  might  be  termed  funny  stories.  This 
is  characteristic:  "  It  made  you  think  of  the  good  Samar- 
itan who,  having  become  once  involved  in  a  procedure  of 
kindness,  found  there  was  no  end  to  it.  I  call  that  story 
the  parable  of  the  Holy  And."  There  was  much  of 
pathos,  occasionally  a  touch  of  pessimism,  but  usually  an 


6o  EDWARD    JUDSON,    INTERPRETER   OF    GOD 

abounding  faith  and  a  deep  spiritual  tone.  Doctor  Judson 
did  not  often  discuss  social  problems  in  his  pulpit.  He  be- 
came a  social  force  by  action,  and  yet  his  voice  was 
frequently  heard  upon  social  questions,  as,  for  example, 
when  he  addressed  a  banquet  of  paper  manufacturers  in 
December,  1898.  He  discussed  what  he  called  The  De- 
velopment of  Civic  Righteousness — its  expression  in  so- 
cial compunction — the  feeling,  for  example,  that  a  man  is 
responsible  for  the  benevolent  use  of  his  wealth,  that 
beyond  the  problem  of  acquisition  is  the  more  difficult 
problem  of  using  wealth. 

While  Doctor  Judson's  pulpit  work  was  largely  the  ex- 
pression of  his  compelling  personality,  it  always  repre- 
sented the  most  thorough  preparation.  Although  his  ser- 
mons were  left  largely  in  fragmentary  notes,  some  are 
preserved  in  manuscript  form,  and  others  found  their 
way  into  print.  Since  he  left  no  volume  of  sermons,  and 
but  an  occasional  sermon  was  ever  printed,  we  shall  quote 
certain  extracts  for  their  intrinsic  value  as  well  as  to 
illustrate  his  pulpit  power. 

On  February  3,  1897,  Doctor  Judson  preached  in  the 
Young  Men's  Christian  Association  Hall  at  Newton, 
Massachusetts.  The  sermon  was  stenographically  re- 
ported. The  extract  which  follows  gives  a  fair  presenta- 
tion of  Doctor  Judson's  method  in  evangelistic  appeal : 

I  do  not  want  to  conceal  it  from  you  that  a  Christian  life 
means  checks  and  restraints.  I  do  not  want  you  to  become  a 
Christian  on  the  ground  that  it  is  a  life  of  large  liberty.  A 
Christian  life  means  being  hemmed  in.  To  become  a  Christian 
is  to  reef  in  your  personal  preferences ;  it  means  to  yield  to 
wholesome  restraint.  .  . 

The  Christian  life  is  a  narrow  way.  It  is  not  a  wide  boulevard. 
It  is  like  walling  in  a  narrow  path  where  our  steps  are  restricted. 
Keep  in  the  path !    That  is  what  it  means  to  be  a  Christian. 

Now,  a  rifle-barrel  encloses  the  force  of  the  powder.  You 
can   touch   off   a   little   powder   on    the   ground,    and   you   will 


PASTOR  AND   PREACHER  6l 

have  a  little  explosion,  light,  and  heat.  So  our  lives,  in  order 
to  realize  much  from  them,  must  be  compressed.  You  can  never 
have  success  in  any  direction  until  your  life  is  shut  in.  Just 
as  a  river  does  not  have  the  same  power  when  it  meanders 
carelessly  over  the  plain  as  when  shut  in  between  the  walls  of 
a  sluice  and  its  forces  directed  and  controlled. 

I  made  up  my  mind  that  .  .  .  the  difference  between  civiliza- 
tion and  savage  life  is  just  that  the  savage  has  his  own  way. 
It  is  a  case  of  individualism  gone  to  seed.  Like  Esau,  he  eats  and 
drinks,  and  goes  his  way.    Civilized  man  yields  to  pressure. 

I  have  not  given  the  gospel  yet.  To  tell  human  nature  that 
it  must  submit  to  restraint  and  do  things  it  does  not  want  to  do 
is  all  very  good,  but  that  is  not  the  gospel. 

If  you  will  yield  to  the  pressure  you  will  find  by  and  by  that 
the  pressure  is  agreeable.  By  and  by  obedience  will  become 
second  nature,  and  you  will  love  to  do  those  things  that  you 
do  not  want  to  do,  and  you  will  learn  to  love  to  do  God's  will, 
and  Brow^ning's  lines  will  come  true  when  we  shall  recognize 

"  The  ultimate  angels'  law. 
Indulging  every  instinct  of  the  soul 
There  where  law,  Hfe,  joy,  impulse  are  one  thing!  " 

We  get  by  and  by  to  taste  the  sweetness  of  this  acquiescence 
in  the  divine  will. 

And  so  we  come  to  feel  that  these  restraints  are  just  our 
heavenly  Father's  arrangements,  and  we  love  to  keep  inside  them 
and  find  happiness  in  yielding  to  the  divine  will. 

I  have  an  idea  that  this  sermon  I  have  tried  to  preach  to-night 
has  its  application  right  here ;  that  if  you  could  be  persuaded 
into  doing  the  thing  you  do  not  want  to,  because  it  is  your  duty, 
you  might  find  the  Saviour.  I  remember  when  I  did  it  as  a 
lad  of  sixteen,  I  just  stood  up  and  said,  "Pray  for  me."  I  had 
always  thought  I  would  be  a  Christian  sometime,  but  it  was 
hard  to  take  the  first  step. 

In  New  York  there  was  a  minister  who  had  a  little  boy,  and 
the  minister  with  the  little  boy  was  at  home  in  one  of  those 
great  houses.  The  mother  was  away,  so  that  when  the  door- 
bell rang  they  both  felt,  "That  is  mother."  So  the  minister 
said  to  his  little  boy,  "  Go  and  open  the  door  for  your  mother." 
And  the  little  boy  went  to  the  great  oak  door  and  turned  the 
knob,  but  could  not  get  the  door  open.     So  he  called  out  to 


62  EDWARD    JUDSON,    INTERPRETER   OF    GOD 

his  mother,  "  Mamma,   I  have  turned   the  knob,  you  push  the 
door  open." 

I  have  often  thought  of  that,  and  Hkened  it  to  the  door  of 
the  heart.  There  is  something  that  keeps  the  door  from  coming 
open.  All  you  have  to  do  is  to  remove  that,  and  Christ  will 
come  in. 

The  sermon,  from  which  the  following  quotations  are 
taken,  reflects  his  own  attitude  of  humility.  He  never 
paraded  his  acts  of  sacrifice  or  exhibited  his  own  good 
works. 

Rank  in  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven 

Take  care,  Peter!  Service  cannot  be  measured  by  bulk.  Self- 
consciousness  and  that  mercenary  spirit  of  yours  are  the  moths 
which  fret  to  death  the  gorgeous  tapestry  of  Christian  service. 
No  matter  how  much  you  do  for  me,  self-consciousness  and  the 
mercenary  spirit  spoil  it  all.  Many  who  are  first  here — of  whom 
people  say  they  have  done  great  things  and  made  great  sacrifices — 
many  such  shall  be  last  over  there,  because  all  they  do  is  spoiled 
by  the  wrong  spirit  which  they  cherish.  And  many  that  are  last 
here,  of  whom  people  say,  "  They  have  done  nothing  for  me,  and 
have  sacrificed  nothing,"  such  people  may  be  first  over  there; 
for  though  there  was  little  to  show  in  bulk  either  of  service 
or  sacrifice,  yet  there  was  the  humble  and  unselfish  spirit  that 
made  what  they  did  of  great  price.  .  . 

The  parable  very  plainly  teaches  that  those  who  are  first  here 
may  be  the  last  there  when  the  great  account  is  made  up.  Per- 
haps there  is  some  Christian  here  in  this  congregation,  looking 
me  right  in  the  face,  of  whom  everybody  is  saying:  "Oh,  what 
a  worker  he  is !  How  much  he  is  giving  up,  and  how  much 
he  is  doing  for  Christ!"  And  yet  there  may  be  in  his  conduct 
that  subtle  spirit  of  self-consciousness  and  selfishness  which  will 
spoil  it  all,  and  he  may  find  himself  way  back  among  the  last 
in  heaven.  .  . 

Rank  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  determined,  not  by  the  bulk 
of  the  service  rendered  and  sacrifice  made,  but  by  the  animating 
spirit  of  the  life.  _ 

It  is  not  those  who  think  that  they  have  attained  to  some 
high  plane  of  moral  excellence  from  which  they  can  look  down 
upon  their  fellow  men,  who  have  already  done  so ;  but  those  who 
are  the  most  conscious  of  their  own  imperfection.     The  ear  of 


PASTOR  AXD   rREACHER  63 

corn,  when  it  is  thin  and  green,  stands  straight  up  on  the  stalk; 
when  it  is  filled  out  and  browned  with  ripeness,  it  bends  its 
head  and  hangs  low  down. 

This  was  his  introduction  to  a  sermon  on  City  Mis- 
sions, announced  as  "  The  Romance  of  the  Mustard- 
seed  " : 

A  man  took  a  tiny  mustard-seed  between  his  thumb  and  finger. 
A  member  o£  the  vegetable  kingdom  comes  into  contact  with  a 
member  of  the  animal  kingdom.  The  seed  so  small  that  he  can 
scarcely  see  it— so  small  he  can  hardly  feel  it  between  the  sen- 
sitive surface  of  his  thumb  and  finger.  "Ye  have  faith  like  a 
grain  of  mustard-seed." 

He  took  the  seed  between  thumb  and  finger,  chose  a  mellow 
spot  in  his  garden  where  there  was  plenty  of  sunshine,  and, 
disturbing  the  soil  a  little,  he  dropped  in  the  mustard-seed 
and  covered  it  up.  And  then  a  w^ondcrful  thing  happened.  The 
soil  closed  around  the  mustard-seed,  just  as  you  would  hold  a 
baby  in  your  arms ;  and  being  warmed  by  the  sun  and  moistened 
by  the  dew  and  rain,  the  little  mustard-seed  began  to  swell,  and 
at  last  cracked  open,  just  as  the  little  chicken  breaks  an  egg-shell. 
Then  there  came  out,  not  a  chicken,  but  two  things,  a  little 
blade,  or  plumule,  and  a  little  root,  or  radicle,  that  went  down. 
The  plumule  and  the  radicle  left  the  shell  of  the  mustard-seed 
just  as  you  would  tumble  out  of  your  bed  in  the  morning. 

The  radicle  went  down  into  the  earth,  and  it  sent  out  little 
hairs,  and  they  sucked  in  the  moisture  and  air  of  the  ground, 
and  sent  them  up  to  the  blade;  and  so  the  whole  thing  kept  on 
growing  until  it  became  a  tree.  As  big  around  as  that  (putting 
hands  together)  it  shot  out  branches.  A  pair  of  birds  came  along, 
and  they  said,  "What  a  place  this  would  be  for  a  nest!  "  and 
so  they  built  their  nest  in  the  crotch  of  the  tree,  and  they  had 
a  place  to  fly  into  when  they  were  tired.  They  had  protection 
against  the  hot  sun  and  the  driving  rain,  and  they  sang  among 
the  branches,  making  the  mustard  tree  a  musical  conserv^atorv'. 
I  submit  that  this  is  quite  a  romance. 

Doctor  Judson  felt  deeply,  and  he  knew  how  to  express 
those  deeper  feeHngs  that  the  average  man  would  hardly 
venture  to  describe.  In  a  sermon  at  the  Berean  Church 
early  in  his  ministry,  on  the  theme  "The  Fruit  of  the 


64  EDWARD   JUDSON,   INTERPRETER   OF   GOD 

Vine,"  in  describing  the  Last  Supper  of  Jesus  with  his 
disciples,  he  said:  : 

This  is  the  last  time  we  shall  meet.  De  Quincy  says :  "  It  is 
just  a  remark  of  Doctor  Johnson,  and  what  cannot  often  be 
said  of  his  remarks,  a  very  feeling  one,  that  we  never  perform  an 
act  consciously  for  the  last  time  without  sadness  of  heart."  It 
was  this  sadness  of  heart  that  had  possession  of  the  breast  of  our 
Saviour.  A  poet  describes  the  death  of  a  man  in  a  porch,  and 
the  man  looks  out  and  sees  the  setting  sun,  and  there  is  a  con- 
sciousness in  his  heart  that  this  will  be  the  last  time. 

"  How  sad 
To  watch  the  last  low  lingering  light 
And  know  not  when  the  morn  may  break." 

And  so  Tennyson  describes  the  dying  man's  last  experience  of 
daybreak  in  the  words : 

"  Ah,  sad  and  strange  as  in  dark  summer  dawns 
The  earliest  pipe  of  half-awaken'd  birds 
To  dying  ears,  when  unto  dying  eyes 
The  casement  slowly  grows  a  glimmering  square; 
So  sad,  so  strange,  the  days  that  are  no  more." 

One  of  the  saddest  experiences  that  we  have  in  this  world  is 
that  of  oldness.  We  found  that  out  in  our  childhood,  when 
we  got  our  toys  all  red  and  new  and  beautiful.  How  soon  they 
became  old  and  spoiled.  Our  school-books  too ;  how  soon  they 
are  worn  out.  So  too,  our  clothes  are  continually  getting  worn 
out.  All  things  that  we  have  are  continually  getting  old.  We 
can  enter  here  into  sympathy  with  the  question  with  which 
the  blase  worldling  Solomon  begins  his  great  book  of  Eccle- 
siastes :  "  Is  there  anything  whereof  it  may  be  said.  See,  this  is 
new?  It  hath  been  already  of  old  time,  which  was  before  us." 
So  with  our  bodies.  They  are  like  a  home,  the  beams  of  which 
are  slowly  crumbling  away.  All  is  growing  old.  But  we  are 
taught  here  that  we  shall  pass  into  a  world  where  there  shall  be  a 
new  earth.  Where,  instead  of  the  oldness  of  our  earthly  life, 
there  shall  be  the  perennial  freshness  of  a  new  life.  We  shall  be 
in  a  strange  world  where  things  never  grow  old.  Do  you 
remember  the  prophet's  words  spoken  far  back  there  in  Isaiah, 
"  For,  behold,  I  create  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth"  ? 


PASTOR   AND    PREACHER  65 

One  of  the  sermons  which  the  writer  remembers  with 
the  greatest  pleasure,  and  from  which  he  has  received 
the  greatest  profit,  was  entitled  "  The  Crescendo  Life," 
from  the  text,  "  I  will  give  him  the  morning  star  " : 

This  is  the  promise  of  Christ  to  the  poor  disciples  at  Thyatira. 
Who  shall  prove  faithful  and  shall  overcome,  I  will  give  him 
the  morning  star.  It  does  not,  of  course,  mean  that  he  will 
literally  pluck  a  star  from  the  sky  and  give  it  to  those  who 
prove  faithful.  We  shall  live  a  crescendo  life.  Everj-body  feels 
the  charm  of  the  crescendo.  There  should  be  no  coming  down- 
stairs as  life  advances.  We  all  want  life  not  to  darken  down, 
but  to  grow  a  little  brighter  all  the  time  the  longer  we  live. 
Some  people  have  a  morbid  habit  of  dwelling  on  the  happy 
days  of  childhood,  as  if  their  "  golden  age  "  were  always  behind 
them.  We  forget  the  troubles  of  our  childhood,  and  recall  only 
its  pleasures.  How  much  better  Browning's  robust  optimism, 
"  The  best  is  yet  to  be."  The  normal  life  grows  ever  happier. 
What  seems  at  first  a  regimen  becomes  at  last  a  delight.  As 
the  ancient  poet  puts  it: 

"  I  will  run  the  way  of  thy  commandments, 
When  thou  shalt  enlarge  my  heart." 

The  consciousness  of  the  presence  and  love  of  the  "Great 
Companion "  is  the  secret  of  the  crescendo  life.  Only  as  we 
relate  ourselves  vitally  to  him  by  faith  and  love  do  we  become 
capable  in  any  measure  of  realizing  such  aspirations  as  are 
voiced  in  Holmes'  "  Chambered  Nautilus  "  : 

"  Build  thee  more  stately  mansions,  O  my  soul. 
As  the  swift  seasons  roll ! 
Leave  thy  low-vaulted  past! 
Let  each  new  temple,  nobler  than  the  last. 
Shut  thee  from  heaven  with  a  dome  more  vast. 
Till  thou  at  length  art  free, 
Leaving  thine  outgrown  shell  by  life's  unresting  sea !  " 

Christianity  gives  us  the  promise  of  a  crescendo  life.  We 
begin  small  and  low  down.  The  ladder  of  true  sainthood  has 
its  lowest  rung  placed  in  the  gutter  of  humiliation.  Self-denial 
comes  at  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  life,  and  willing  obedi- 
ence at  the  end.  Only  after  long  and  sustained  endeavor  do 
we  achieve 


66  EDWARD   JUDSON,    INTERPRETER   OF    GOD 

"  The  ultimate  angels'  law, 
Indulging  every  instinct  of  the  soul 
There  where  law,  Hfe,  joy,  impulse  are  one  thing!  " 

We  begin  by  being  the  servants  of  Christ,  and  end  by  hearing 
him  calling  us  friends.  The  human  spirit  resembles  a  stagnant 
pool  all  overspread  with  the  green  scum  of  sin,  in  the  center 
of  which  the  Christian  life  bubbles  up  like  a  little  spring  that 
keeps  at  work  till  it  clears  away  all  impurity.  According  to 
the  old  Hebrew  proverb,  "The  path  of  the  just  is  as  the  shining 
light,  that  shineth  more  and  more  unto  the  perfect  day." 

Certain  central  truths  laid  fast  hold  tipon  him.  He 
preached  again  and  again  upon  "  Christian  Tranquillity," 
more  than  once  in  his  own  pulpit,  also  in  Rochester,  in 
Boston,  at  Cornell,  and  elsewhere.  He  could  press  a 
whole  sermon  into  a  paragraph.  This  is  the  heart  of  his 
sermon  on  Christian  Tranquillity : 

In  the  writings  of  Isaiah  we  have  frequent  allusions  to  the 
potter  and  his  wheel,  as  in  that  familiar  passage  of  exquisite 
beauty,  a  strophe  from  a  post-exilic  hymn :  "  Thou  will  keep 
him  in  perfect  peace,  whose  mind  is  stayed  on  thee;  because 
he  trusteth  in  thee ; "  or  as  more  exactly  rendered :  "  The  soul 
whom  thou  dost  sustain,  thou  wilt  mold  into  perfect  peace; 
because  he  trusteth  in  thee."  There  is  no  word  of  Scripture 
more  replete  with  Christian  tranquillity.  The  believer  is  the 
formless  lump  of  clay.  Jehovah  is  the  artist.  The  outcome  is 
an  exquisite  vase,  bearing  the  legend,  Perfect  Peace. 

But  there  are  two  conditions  essential  to  this  glorious  result. 
The  potter  must  sustain  and  fashion  the  lump  of  moist  clay, 
and  the  clay  must  lie  still  and  be  soft  and  acquiescent  to  the 
potter's  molding.  Translated  into  prose,  The  experiences  of 
life  are  God's  way  of  bringing  the  soul  that  trusts  in  him 
into  a  sense  of  perfect  security,  into  the  possession  of  a  tran- 
quil mind. 

Here  is  another  sermon  in  a  paragraph : 

"Believe  me  that  I  am  in  the  Father,  and  the  Father  in 
me;  or  else  believe  me  for  the  very  works'  sake,"  as  if  he 
would  prefer  to  have  us  believe  in  him  for  his  own  sake  with- 
out  any   miracles   at   all.     As    rude,   perishable   trestlework   is 


PASTOR   AND    PREACHER  6/ 

ultimately  replaced  on  a  railroad  by  compact  masonry,  so  the 
faith  of  the  gospel  which  rested  once  upon  miracle,  now  rests 
upon  the  world's  personal  experience  of  Christ's  power  to  save 
the  state,  the  family,  and  the  individual.  And  while  the  evi- 
dence from  miracle  weakens  with  time,  the  evidence  from 
experience  accumulates   force  through  the  years. 

His  sermons  were  abundantly  illustrated  by  literary  gems, 
chiefly  from  the  great  poets,  which  he  quoted  from 
memory  and  with  deep  feeling.  In  speaking  of  the 
vague  sense  of  danger  which  seems  to  oppress  animal 
existence,  he  says  Faust's  complaint  is  true  to  human  life: 

Care  at  the  bottom  of  the  heart  is  lurking: 

Her  secret  pangs  in  silence  working, 

She,  restless,  rocks  herself,  disturbing  joy  and  rest: 

In  newer  masks  her  face  is  drest. 

By  turns  as  house  and  land,  as  wife  and  child,  presented — 

As  water,  fire,  as  poison,  steel. 

And  what  we  never  lose  is  yet  by  us  lamented ! 

The  incarnation  was  essential  to  his  thought.  We  find  it 
clearly  stated  in  his  lecture  on  Matthew  Arnold,  in  this 
short  paragraph : 

The  Scriptures  reflect  into  our  consciousness  as  from  a 
mirror  the  radiant  personality  of  Jesus,  who  is  the  heavenly 
Father  unveiled.  Outside  of  Christ  we  have  only  vague  notions 
of  God.  In  Christ  he  is  definite,  personal,  sympathetic,  near  at 
hand.  We  feel  his  pity  and  love.  We  speak  to  him  as  a 
child  to  its  mother.  I  find  prayer  most  satisfying  when  it  is 
addressed  directly  to  Christ,  who  is  all  of  God  that,  in  humanity, 
we  can  comprehend. 

PULPIT   PRAYER 

"  It  is  a  heavenly  gift  to  be  able  to  lead  the  prayer 
of  our  fellow  believers,  calling  home  their  wandering 
thoughts,  and  fixing  their  loving  and  reverent  regard  on 
God  as  revealed  to  us  in  Christ."  He  had  a  keen  appre- 
ciation of  his  gift,  but  also  of  the  obligations  involved. 
He  gave  careful  thought  to  his  prayers  in  public  worship. 
He  said: 


68       EDWARD  JUDSON,  INTERPRETER  OF  GOD 

There  are  two  inexhaustible  storehouses  of  materials  for  public 
prayer.  They  are  humanity  and  holy  Scripture.  If  we  maintain 
a  sympathetic  attitude  toward  our  fellow  mortals  and  keep 
our  minds  informed  regarding  their  varied  needs,  we  shall 
never  weary  of  interceding  for  them  to  our  Father  in  heaven. 
Take,  for  instance,  what  is  called  the  "  long  prayer  "  on  Sunday 
morning.  It  should  consist,  so  we  are  told,  of  adoration,  thanks- 
giving, confession,  and  intercession.  In  adoration,  we  form  a 
vivid  conception  of  the  Being  to  whom  we  pray.  In  thanks- 
giving, we  express  our  gratitude  for  his  mercies.  In  confession, 
we  tell  him  how  sorry  we  are  for  our  sins.  When  we  come  to 
the  intercession,  there  opens  a  boundless  vista. 

In  his  public  prayer  he  radiated  the  spirit  of  devotion, 
and  was  accustomed  to  express  in  chaste  language  and 
with  the  finest  delicacy  the  deeper  human  aspirations. 
But  few  of  these  prayers  have  been  preserved. 

Almighty  God,  our  heavenly  Father:  For  these  provisions  of 
thy  bounty  and  for  the  goodly  fellowship  of  this  hour  we  thank 
thee.  For  this  great  bountiful  earth  upon  the  surface  of  which 
we  live  we  thank  thee.  For  its  luxurious  vegetation,  its  vast 
material  resources,  its  glorious  animal  life,  we  thank  thee.  For 
its  forests,  lakes,  and  streams,  for  its  oceans  and  glaciers  and 
mountains,  for  its  meadows  and  orchards  and  gardens  we  thank 
thee.  We  love  this  spacious  home  which  thou  hast  given  us, 
especially  its  wilder  and  more  rugged  aspects.  We  thank  thee 
for  thy  protection  and  deliverance  in  past  dangers,  and  for 
the  bright  hopes  thou  givest  us  for  future  adventures,  dis- 
coveries, and  conquests.  May  we  dwell  in  the  consciousness  of 
thine  existence,  presence,  and  changeless  regard.  May  we  be 
faithful  to  observe  trusts.  May  we  give  ourselves  to  the  service 
of  humanity,  being  especially  regardful  of  those  of  our  felloAV 
creatures  that  are  in  want  or  in  pain.  Grant  us  in  health  and 
prosperity  long  to  live  and  finally  after  this  life  an  abundant 
entrance  into  thy  heavenly  kingdom,  through  Jesus  Christ  our 
Lord.    Amen. 

This  was  his  prayer  at  the  formal  opening  of  the  Bart- 
lett  Gymnasium  at  the  University  of  Chicago : 

Almighty  God,  our  heavenly  Father,  who  hast  taught  us  by 
thy   holy   apostle,    Saint   Paul,    to   present   our   bodies    a    living 


PASTOR    AND    PREACHER  69 

sacrifice,  holy,  acceptable  unto  thee,  which  is  our  reasonable  ser- 
vice, we  pray  that  our  whole  spirit  and  soul  and  body  be  preserved 
blameless  unto  the  coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Accord- 
ing to  the  riches  of  thy  grace,  enable  us  to  account  our  body 
as  a  temple  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  remembering  that  we  are  not  our 
own,  but  we  are  bought  with  a  price,  and  that  we  should  glorify 
God  in  our  body.  Be  pleased  to  accept  at  our  hands  this  house, 
which  we  do  hereby  consecrate  to  the  glory  of  God  and  to  the 
symmetrical  development  of  the  bodies  which  thou  hast  given 
us,  wherewith  to  serv'e  thee.  We  bless  thee  for  the  life  of  thy 
young  servant,  whose  name  this  house  bears,  and  whose  memory 
is  enshrined  within  its  walls.  We  give  thee  hearty  thanks  for 
the  good  examples  of  all  those  thy  servants,  who,  having  finished 
their  course  in  faith,  do  now  rest  from  their  labors.  "  We  feebly 
struggle,  they  in  glory  shine.  Yet  all  are  one  in  thee,  for  all 
are  thine."  May  we  walk  in  their  steps,  and,  through  thine 
infinite  compassion,  be  joined  to  them  at  the  last,  entering  into 
their  eternal  felicity,  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord,  to  whom 
with  thee  and  the  Holy  Spirit  be  all  honor  and  glory,  world 
without  end.    Amen. 

His  benedictions  were  in  themselves  sermons,  impressive 
of  his  gentleness  and  sweetness  of  spirit  and  warmth  of 
devotion. 

This  was  his  benediction  at  the  Jtidson  Centennial  at 
Boston : 

Lighten  our  darkness,  we  beseech  thee,  O  Lord,  and  by  thy 
great  mercy  defend  us  from  all  perils  and  dangers  of  this  night, 
for  the  love  of  thy  only  Son,  our  Saviour,  Jesus  Christ. 

The  peace  of  God,  which  passeth  all  understanding,  keep  your 
hearts  and  minds  in  the  knowledge  and  love  of  God  and  of  his 
Son  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.  And  the  blessing  of  God  Almighty, 
the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Spirit,  be  amongst  you  and 
remain  with  you  always.    Amen. 


IV 

AUTHOR 

For  after  all,  God  thinks  more  of  a  man  than  he  does  of  his 
work.  A  man's  work  may  be  burned,  but  the  man  himself 
shall  be  saved  as  by  fire.  We  are  all  the  time  thinking  of  what 
we  are  doing  to  our  work;  God  is  thinking  of  what  our  work 
is  doing  to  us. — Edward  Judson. 

EACH  age  must  act  for  itself,  but  it  must  think  other 
men's  thoughts  after  them  if  it  would  conserve  its 
social  heritage  which  is  richer  than  nature's  deposits  of 
gold  and  silver,  and  more  potent  than  nature's  force  of 
electricity.  Human  progress  from  generation  to  genera- 
tion is  possible  only  by  conserving  and  appropriating  the 
thought  of  the  past  which  meets  the  test  of  experience.  It 
is  the  purpose  of  this  chapter  to  preserve  some  of  the 
most  valuable  of  Edward  Judson's  writings. 

He  wrote  but  two  books,  "  The  Life  of  Adoniram  Jud- 
son "  and  "  The  Institutional  Church  " ;  the  former  was 
published  by  the  American  Baptist  Publication  Society, 
and  the  latter  by  Lentilhon  and  Company.  He  edited, 
with  C.  S,  Robinson,  D.  D.,  the  "  New  Laudes  Domini," 
one  of  the  finest  hymn-books,  published  by  the  Cen- 
tury Company.  He  published  also  an  abridged  edition  of 
the  life  of  his  father.  A  few  years  before  his  death 
he  told  the  writer  that  it  was  his  hope  to  retire  to  Hamil- 
ton before  the  end  should  come,  to  rewrite  his  "  Insti- 
tutional Church  "  and  to  write  a  book  on  homiletics.  It 
is  unfortunate  that  this  purpose  was  not  fulfilled. 

Edward  Judson's  first  literary  production  was  the 
biography  of  his  father,  published  in  1883.  Because  of 
its  delightful  personal  touch  in  expression  of  deserved 
70 


AUTHOR  71 

appreciation,  we  quote  the  following  personal  letter  of 
March  7,  1883,  from  George  Dana  Boardman,  Edward 
Judson's  half-brother: 

My  dear  Brother  Edw.uu)  :  Receive  our  warmest  thanks  for 
"  The  Life  of  Adoniram  Judson  by  his  son  Edward  Judson." 

Trying  to  guard  myself  against  any  preconception  in  its  favor 
which  might  rise  from  personal  considerations,  I  have  sought 
to  read  it  as  though  I  had  never  heard  of  the  author  nor  had 
information  with  the  subject.  Let  me  then  say  that  I  have  read 
the  book  with  intense  interest.  It  is  straightforward,  compact, 
clear,  vivid,  inspiring,  uplifting.  It  is  so  full  of  noble  things  that 
I  want  half  a  day  to  talk  with  you  about  them.  .  . 

This  work  is  historically  accurate,  pleasing  in  its  ar- 
rangement, discerning  in  the  materials  used,  and  finely 
expresses  a  son's  affection.  It  gives  a  fair  statement  of 
his  father's  achievements  with  something  of  their  his- 
toric results.  However,  as  a  literary  production  it  does 
not  compare  in  style  and  finish  with  his  writings  of  later 
years. 

Doctor  Judson's  greatest  literary  efifort  was  his  "In- 
stitutional Church,"  published  in  1899.  We  quote  again 
from  Doctor  Boardman: 

The  copy  of  "  The  Institutional  Church,"  which  you  kindly 
sent  us,  has  just  come  to  hand.  I  have  read  it  with  zest,  and 
I  trust  with  personal  profit.  Your  book,  small  as  it  is,  outweighs 
tons  of  theoretical  tomes.  It  is  clear  in  conception  and  state- 
ment; comprehensive  in  sweep;  definite  in  details;  sympathetic 
in  range;  steady  in  its  hand,  but  adjustable  in  its  fingers;  up- 
lifting in  its  force  and  direction;  Christlike  in  its  spirit  and 
tendency.  I  am  sure  that  it  will  do  immeasurable  good  among 
all  denominations  and  in  all  lands. 

The  late  Dr.  W.  R.  Huntington,  for  many  years  the 

eminent  rector  of  Grace  Episcopal  Church,  New  York 

City,  wrote: 

February  26,  1900. 

Dear   Doctor  Judson:   The  other  night   I   had  occasion   to 

address  the  XIX  Century  Club  on  the  subject  of  the  "  Institu- 

F 


"^2  EDWARD  JUDSON,    INTERPRETER   OF   GOD 

tional  Church."  Your  little  book,  which  I  read  in  connection 
with  my  preparation  for  the  speech,  struck  me  as  so  admirable 
that  I  cannot  forbear  expressing  my  obligation  to  the  author. 
I  read  your  definition  of  the  institutional  church  to  the  audience 
as  a  starter  for  the  discussion. 

While  the  book  was  written  to  interpret  the  spirit  and 
work  of  the  institutional  church,  it  is  a  splendid  treatise 
on  the  mission  of  the  church,  and  gives  an  especially 
clear  analysis  of  the  minister's  task.  Dr.  William  M. 
Lawrence  says  that  in  the  preparation  of  his  lectures  on 
homiletics  he  has  found  Doctor  Judson's  "  Institutional 
Church  "  more  helpful  than  any  other  book. 

While  written  for  a  practical  purpose  and  serving  that 
purpose  admirably,  the  work  has  rare  literary  value.  It 
is  as  artistic  in  its  construction  and  choice  in  its  diction 
as  the  most  carefully  written  essay.  It  will  be  prized  as 
a  classic  statement  of  the  older  conception  of  the  insti- 
tutional church.  As  much  attention  will  be  given  in  the 
two  succeeding  chapters  to  the  subject  discussed  by  this 
book,  we  shall  not  here  make  extended  references  to  it. 

"  The  Church  in  Its  Social  Aspect "  was  the  subject 
of  a  monograph  reprinted  from  the  "  Annals  of  the 
American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social  Science  "  for 
November,  1907.  In  a  personal  note  to  Doctor  Judson, 
Bishop  Henry  C.  Potter  paid  his  tribute  to  this  careful 
piece  of  work: 

My  dear  Doctor  Judson:  Accept  my  sincere  thanks  for  your 
"  The  Church  in  Its  Social  Aspect."  It  is  altogether  admirable 
for  its  truth,  its  frankness,  and  its  timeliness.  May  God  con- 
tinue abundantly  to  bless  your  work. 

Affectionately  yours, 

Henry  C.  Potter. 

He  used  to  practical  ends  his  literary  genius.  His 
descriptions  of  down-town  church  conditions  are  as  finely 
phrased  as  they  are  accurate  (see  Chapter  V),  such  as: 


AUTHOR  73 

If  the  rich  and  the  poor  are  ever  to  meet  together  it  must  be 
in  the  poor  man's  territory;  for  money  and  locomotion  are 
correlative  terms.  .  .  Down-town  churches  succumb  to  a  slow 
process  of  decay,  just  as  in  some  northern  lake  the  construction 
of  a  dam  causes  the  water  to  rise  and  to  submerge  the  roots 
of  the  trees  that  fringe  the  shores,  so  that,  lifeless  and  despoiled 
of  their  verdure,  they  stand  there  like  pale,  gaunt  skeletons.  This 
mark  of  decay  creeps  slowly  up  the  island  (Manhattan)  as 
dropsy  beginning  at  the  feet  climbs  up  until  it  floods  the  vitals. 

This  gem  on  unconscious  achievement  was  printed  in 
his  church  calendar : 

Greatness  is  achieved  not  by  direct  and  eager  chase,  but  while 
we  are  looking  for  something  else.  It  is  the  little  things  we  get 
by  hot  endeavor.  The  great  things  come  to  us,  as  it  were 
around  a  corner.  We  never  become  beautiful,  or  eloquent,  or 
popular,  or  happy,  or  intellectual,  or  even  good,  by  hard  labor. 
Whatever  we  get  of  such  things  will  come  to  us  when  we  are 
most  self-forgetful,  and  most  absorbed  in  the  service  of  our 
kind,  and  not  when  we  are  living  the  life  of  Byron  as  described 
by  William  Watson : 

"  Too  avid  of  earth's  bliss,  he  was  of  those 
Whom  delight  flies  because  they  give  her  chase. 
Only  the  odor  of  her  wild  hair  blows 
Back  in  their  faces  hungering  for  her  face." 

In  the  introduction  which  he  wrote  to  "  The  Redemp- 
tion of  the  City,"  by  Charles  Hatch  Sears,  he  made  this 
discerning  statement  on  the  advent  of  the  foreigner  into 
our  American  cities : 

Instead  of  regarding  the  foreigner  as  the  last  straw  that 
breaks  the  camel's  back,  we  are  coming  to  see  that  he  may  prove 
the  very  salvation  of  our  churches.  The  presence  of  leguminous 
plants,  beans  for  instance,  growing  in  the  midst  of  tall  standing 
corn,  strikes  us  at  first  as  being  an  intrusion.  We  resent  the 
dense  jungle  of  verdure  that  seems  to  obstruct  the  growth 
of  the  corn  and  unduly  to  exhaust  the  soil.  But  upon  further 
consideration  we  learn  that  these  plants,  which  at  first  seem  to 
us  a  menace,  enrich  the  soil  by  their  presence,  since  they  are  all 
the  time  drawing  the  free  nitrogen  out  of  the  air  and  storing 


74  EDWARD   JUDSON,    INTERPRETER   OF   GOD 

it  away  in  the  nodules  at  their  roots  underground,  so  that  a 
given  area  will  produce  twenty  per  cent  more  crop  with  less 
exhaustion  to  the  soil  than  would  have  been  occasioned  by  the 
ordinary  yield.  The  coming  of  the  foreigner  may  prove  to  be 
the  secret  of  the  renewal  of  our  worn-out  ecclesiastical  soils  in 
the  lower  sections  of  our  great  cities. 

This  letter  to  Dr.  Howard  Duffield,  pastor  of  the  Old 
First  Presbyterian  Church,  is  typical  of  his  sympathy 
and  understanding,  and  illustrates  his  pure  diction: 

My  dear  Dr.  Duffield  :  I  deeply  regret  that  I  am  unavoidably 
prevented  from  coming  to  you  this  afternoon.  I  want  to  con- 
gratulate you  on  the  completion  of  ten  years  of  honest,  faithful 
service  in  New  York.  Your  presence  has  been  felt  in  this  part 
of  the  city  like  a  healing  touch.  Under  the  hydraulic  pressure 
of  difficulty  incident  to  work  in  a  down-town  field  you  have 
kept  sweet  and  brave.  You  have  been  brotherly  to  the  rest  of 
us  who  have  shared  with  you  the  task  of  making  New  York 
better  through  the  diffusion  of  the  gospel  of  Christ  in  this 
neighborhood.  Your  church  and  mine  are  little  more  than  a 
stone's  throw  apart,  but  there  have  been  no  stones  thrown  be- 
tween us.  We  have  dwelt  together  in  unity.  You  have  shunned 
sensational  methods  and  that  success  which  is  the  child  of  bad 
qualities.  I  am  twice  as  old  as  you  are  as  regards  living  in 
New  York,  having  been  here  over  twenty  years  to  your  ten; 
and,  if  I  may  judge  from  my  own  residence  in  this  community, 
you  will  find  your  second  decade  happier  and  sunnier  than  the 
first.  This  is  my  fervent  wish  and  prayer.  The  blessing  of  God 
Almighty  remain  with  you  and  the  "  Old  First "  always.    I  remain, 

December  8,  1901.  Yours  with  warmest  esteem. 

To  a  much-esteemed  member  of  his  church  upon  her 
application  for  a  church  letter,  he  wrote : 

My  dear  Friend:  Oh,  no!  I  have  not  forgotten  you,  and  all 
your  kindness  to  me,  and  sympathy  with  our  work,  and  fidelity 
to  the  church  here  in  lower  New  York,  where  we  have  to  struggle 
even  to  exist.  And  I  was  very  glad  to  hear  from  you  and  about 
you,  for  I  miss  you  to  this  day.  .  .  Remembering  gratefully  the 
old  days  when  you  were  with  us,  and  thanking  you  for  your 


AUTHOR  75 

letter,  and  praying  that  you  may  be  ever  kept  by  our  kind 
heavenly  Father  in  his  perfect  safety  and  peace,  I  remain. 

Your  affectionate  friend  and  former  pastor. 

This  letter  is  prized  by   one  of  his  associates: 

Mrs.  Judson  and  I  unite  in  sending  you  our  heartfelt  congratu- 
lations on  the  safe  arrival  of  and  rejoice  that  she  and  her 

mother  are  doing  avcII.  The  enrichment  of  life  through  the  birth 
of  a  little  child  is  about  the  most  signal  blessing  that  can  come 
into  a  home,  and  we  thank  the  Father  for  this  gift  which  he 
has  bestowed  upon  you  two,  whom  we  have  so  long  known 
and  esteemed  that  we  feel  that  we  can  enter  with  full  sympathy 
into  your  joy. 

To  a  friend  he  wrote: 

I  take  the  greater  pleasure  in  sending  you  this  information,  be- 
cause you  have  always  been  such  a  help  and  comfort  to  me  in 
my  efforts  to  build  in  lower  New  York,  among  the  homes  of 
the  poor,  a  church  edifice  tJiat  shall  not  only  preserve  in  beautified 
and  permanent  form  the  unspeakably  precious  memories  of  our 
early  missionary  history,  but  zi'ill  contribute  to  the  solution  of 
the  ditficult  and  pressing  problem  of  the  city  evangelisation,  I 
remain  yours  with  warmest  gratitude  and  esteem. 

He  did  not  often  write  a  sharp  letter,  but  he  knew  how 
to  administer  a  deserved  rebuke : 

I  do  not  think  the  cause  of  truth  is  helped  by  our  putting 
into  circulation  general  impressions  which  may  do  injustice  to 
our  sincere  fellow  believers.  I  am  reminded  of  George  Eliot's 
allusion  to  the  fatal  gift  of  generalization  which  gives  man  so 
great  a  superiority  in  mistake  over  the  dumb  animals. 

He  was  especially  apt  in  epigrams.  He  could  compress 
much  wisdom  into  a  little  space.  'For  example : 

The  highest  egoism  and  the  purest  altruism  are  identical. 
Selfishness  spoils  the  fairest  endeavor. 
Success  resides  in  longevity  and  good  behavior. 
Character  is  the  parent  of  comfort. 


76  EDWARD   JUDSON,    INTERPRETER   OF   GOD 

There  is  no  foundation  of  character  but  the  Christian  reUgion. 

Such  long  residence  subjects  the  character  to  a  severe  test. 
What  we  are,  is  sure  to  transpire.  People  find  us  out.  If  we 
are  bad  we  had  better  move  often. 

A  lie  has  too  long  legs  altogether  for  a  man  to  spend  any  time 
to  catch  up  with  it. 

I  always  like  to  be  in  good  company  evenings.  Almost  any- 
body can  be  good  forenoons,  but  when  the  afternoon  has  worn 
away,  and  night  comes  with  its  temptations  and  dangers,  I  always 
seek  the  company  of  people  who  are  better  than  I. 

The  body  nailed  to  the  cross  was  a  healthy  body. 

The  stuff  that  we  handle  in  New  York  is  indeed  very  stiff 
to  the  touch. 

It  is  only  in  the  slow  acid  of  time  that  the  hard  crystals  of 
difficulty  can  be  dissolved. 

As  Carlyle  has  it,  "  He  burned  his  own  smoke."  He  did  not 
blow  it  into  the  nostrils  of  others.  The  man  in  the  street  feels 
the  force  of  Goethe's  remark,  "  I  will  take  any  man's  convictions, 
but  pray  keep  your  doubts  to  yourself,  I  have  enough  of  my  own." 

It  is  with  age  as  with  poverty,  the  first  pinch  is  the  sharpest. 
Victor  Hugo  said  that  he  was  a  great  deal  older  at  fifty  than 
at  sixty;  for  fifty  is  the  age  of  youth,  sixty  is  the  youth  of  age. 

These  striking  sentences  are  taken  from  his  contribu- 
tion to  the  biography  of  Dr.  WilHam  N.  Clarke,  and 
quoted  through  the  courtesy  of  the  author,  Mrs.  WilHam 
N.  Clarke: 

Doctor  Clarke's  character  gave  a  carrying  quality  to  his  doc- 
trine. 

The  best  Christians  in  the  churches  are  those  who  do  not 
know  it. 

He  was  like  a  tree  that  bears  fruit,  not  by  trying,  but  because 
it  has  so  much  life  that  it  does  not  know  what  to  do  with  it, 
and  so  turns  it  into  fruit. 

He  knew  the  secret  of  kindling  into  fruitage  the  minds  of 
others.  He  was  a  good  listener.  You  never  found  in  him  the 
glazed  eye,  when  you  were  doing  the  talking.  Like  the  woman 
of  the  French  salons,  he  had  the  art  of  intellectual  irritation.    He 


AUTHOR  TJ 

drew  out  of  j'ou  your  best  thoughts,  like  the  eminent  pedagogue, 
who  said,  "  I  teach  not;  I  awaken!  " 
He  took  the  impress  of  your  thought,  without  urging  his  own. 

He  was  a  master  of  irony,  but  was  accustomed  to 
apply  it  not  to  particular  individuals,  but  to  classes  or  to 
humanity  as  a  whole: 

According  to  a  suggestive  saying  of  the  !Man  of  Nazareth, 
some  of  us  are  human  jackals,  always  in  search  of  some  com- 
fortable burrow  in  which  to  curl  up  and  take  our  rest,  or  like 
birds  of  the  air  seeking  their  roosting-places  in  the  branches 
of  some  great  tree;  others  of  us  are  like  the  great  tree  itself, 
into  which  all  kinds  of  chased  and  tired  birds  fly  for  refuge. 

We  are  too  much  like  a  company  of  home  militia  that  enlisted 
with  the  express  understanding  that  they  were  never  to  be  taken 
out  of  the  country  unless  it  should  be  invaded. 

The  seminal  minds  out  of  which  all  reforms  emerge  are  pro- 
verbially cautious  and  reserved.  Like  Erasmus,  they  are  apt  to 
say :  "  Let  others  affect  martyrdom ;  as  for  me,  I  do  not  consider 
myself  worthy  of  the  honor." 

There  was  sometimes  a  subtle  pessimistic  note  in  his 
thought,  though  often  it  may  have  been  only  a  just 
estimate  of  life's  experience. 

Every  kind  of  philanthropy  has  its  undertow.  In  this  per- 
verse world  some  harm  is  always  mixed  with  the  good  we  do. 
Even  kindness  casts  a  shadow. 

It  is  a  part  of  the  irony  of  life,  that  youth,  with  all  its  imma- 
turity and  meager  experience,  is  required  to  make  decisions  upon 
which  the  whole  subsequent  career  hinges. 

A  single  lifetime  is  too  short  for  the  accomplishment  of  any- 
thing. Two  lifetimes  have  to  be  spliced  together.  We  can  only 
make  a  few  tracks  in  the  snow  which  those  coming  after  us  will 
see  and  follow  home. 

"  Others  shall  sing  the  song. 
Others  shall  right  the  wronj, 
Finish  what  I  begin 
And  all  I  fail  of  win." 


yS  EDWARD   JUDSON,    INTERPRETER   OF   GOD 

His  frequent  use  of  such  words  as  the  following  can  be 
understood  only  in  the  light  of  his  hard  experiences : 

When  the  glowing  lava  of  thought  has  once  grown  cold,  having 
crystallized  itself  into  mischievous  institutional  forms,  it  is  hard 
to  melt  it  all  over  again,  and  start  anew. 

Though  often  depressed  by  the  actual,  he  had  a  sub- 
lime faith  in  the  ideal.  His  rugged  faith  found  frequent 
expression — a  faith  not  born  of  hope  in  his  own  achieve- 
ments, but  in  the  ultimate  plans  of  God. 

The  operations  of  God,  slow  in  their  beginnings,  hasten  to 
their  ,tpnclusion  with  thunder  speed.  An  apple  tree  is  slow  to 
come  to  the  point  of  bearing,  but  a  little  time  suffices  for  the 
ripening  of  the  apple.  The  withered  foliage  clings  to  the 
branches  of  the  trees,  and  is  reluctant  to  let  go,  but  a  day 
comes  in  autumn  when  the  air  is  full  of  falling  leaves. 

If  we  keep  in  the  midstream  of  the  divine  will,  we  release 
forces  whose  beneficent  action  is  registered  in  distant  and  un- 
expected places.  This  is  the  secret  of  all  enduring  influence. 
In  doing  the  duty  nearest  us,  we  are  like  the  bumblebee  that, 
in  search  for  honey,  plunging  his  proboscis  down  among  the 
fragrant  petals  of  some  gorgeous  blossom,  unconsciously  dis- 
lodges and  distributes  the  pollen,  thus  promoting  the  cross- 
fertilization  of  plants.  The  best  work  he  is  doing,  he  knows 
nothing  about.    He  is  making  the  wilderness  bloom  like  the  rose. 

How  can  the  human  spirit  find  rest  anywhere  for  the  sole 
of  her  foot  at  such  a  cataclysmic  time?  Is  there  a  calm  eye 
at  the  center  of  this  cyclone?  Some  seek  for  peace  in  the 
monomania  of  atheism.  They  think  our  health  depends  upon 
our  minds  being  entirely  disinfected  from  religious  ideas.  We 
should  not  wrestle  with  religion,  but  forget  it.  Our  atheism 
itself,  if  we  become  conscious  of  it  and  try  to  justify  it,  becomes 
a  kind  of  religion. 

There  is  always  something  occurring  that  jostles  us  out  of 
our  composure  when  we  prepare  to  settle  down  in  a  long  sleep 
in  the  materialistic  theory  of  the  universe.  The  bed  is  shorter 
than  that  a  man  can  stretch  himself  on  it. 

"Just  when  we  are  safest,  there's  a  sunset  touch, 
A  fancy  from  a  flower-bell,  some  one's  death, 
A  chorus  ending  from  Euripides, 


AUTHOR  79 

And  that's  enough  for  fifty  hopes  and  fears 
As  old  and  new  at  once  as  Nature's  self 
To  rap  and  knock  and  enter  in  our  soul 
Take  hands  and  dance  there,  a  fantastic  ring 
Round  the  ancient  idol,  on  its  base  again 
The  grand  Perhaps." 

These  two  choice  observations  are  from  his  lecture  on 
Matthew  Arnold: 

Compassion  for  the  sorrows  of  our  fellow  creatures,  the  lower 
animals,  is  one  of  the  high-water  marks  of  civilization.  It  seems 
to  be  a  part  of  that  fund  of  altruism  deposited  in  human  his- 
tory by  the  Alan  of  Nazareth,  whose  tender  regard  for  the 
sparrow  falling  to  the  ground,  the  doves  in  their  wicker  cages, 
the  laboring  and  heavy-laden  beasts  of  burden,  and  the  lost 
sheep  pathetically  pressing  its  head  against  the  shepherd's  neck, 
seems  so  strangely  out  of  touch  with  the  habits  and  sentiments 
of  the  age  to  which  he  belonged,  and  of  Oriental  life  as  we  see 
it  now. 

But  in  Matthew  Arnold,  a  sort  of  high  priest  of  Nature, 
as  he  was,  the  druidical  temperament  was  softened  by  sym- 
pathy with  humanity.  He  will  always  be  read,  because  he  puts 
into  classical  form  the  soul's  saddest  moods.  His  tone  is 
pessimistic,  in  contrast  with  Browning's  robust  optimism.  He 
finds  us  when  our  spirits  are  at  their  lowest  ebb.  Such  men 
comfort  us  not  so  much  for  any  positive  truth  that  they  offer, 
as  because  they  have  felt  our  mental  pain  and  interpret  us  to 
ourselves,  just  as  a  cool  soothing  hand  on  a  fevered  brow  is 
more  than  medicine. 

A  mind  reveals  itself  by  what  it  feeds  upon.  One  of 
the  most  interesting  discoveries  made  in  the  preparation 
of  this  work  has  been  the  wealth  of  choicest  quotations 
from  masterpieces  of  English  literature,  both  in  prose 
and  in  poetry,  with  which  Doctor  Judson's  files  were 
stocked.  The  range  of  these  quotations,  their  generally 
healthy  tone,  their  depth  of  human  sympathy,  well  illus- 
trate the  breadth  of  Edward  Judson's  sympathy  and 
literary  taste.    He  says: 


8o  EDWARD   JUDSON,    INTERPRETER   OF   GOD 

You  can  hardly  find  anywhere  any  more  exquisite  cries  of 
pain  than  in  Matthew  Arnold  as  when  he  wrote,  "  The  guide 
of  our  dark  steps,"  etc. 

He  contrasts  Arnold  with  Browning  and  with  WilHam 
Watson,  who  more  truly  represented  Doctor  Judson's 
own  feeling. 

His  plaintive  misgivings  regarding  age  and  death  are  in  strong 
contrast  with  the  iron  hopefulness  of  Browning,  who 

"  Never  doubted  clouds  would  break ; 
Never  dreamed  though  right  were  worsted,  wrong  would  triumph. 
Held  we  fall  to  rise,  are  baffled  to  fight  better. 
Sleep  to  wake." 
Even  William  Watson  strikes  a  more  cheerful  note: 
"  Say  what  you  will,  the  young  are  happy  never. 
Give  me  blest  age,  beyond  the  fire  and  fever — 
Past  the  delight  that  shatters,  hope  that  stings, 
And  eager  fluttering  of  life's  ignorant  wings." 

"  How  often  since  his  departure,"  he  said  of  Doctor 
Clarke,  "  have  come  to  my  mind  Browning's  great  lines 
about  the  '  Death  in  the  Desert '  " : 

[We  shall]  "  not  see  him  any  more 
About  the  world  with  his  divine  regard ! 
For  all  was  as  I  say,  and  now  the  man 
Lies  as  he  lay  once,  breast  to  breast  with  God." 

With  delicate  feeling  he  says : 

They  remind  you  of  the  voiceless  of  whom  Olivier  Wendell 
Holmes  so  pathetically  sings: 

"  O  hearts  that  break  and  give  no  sign 
Save  whitening  lip  and  fading  tresses, 
Till  Death  pours  out  his  [cordial]  wine 

Slow-dropped  from  Misery's  crushing  presses." 

It  may  be  some  old  missionary  or  retired  minister  with 

"  Hearts  worn  out  with  many  wars, 
And  eyes  grown  dim  with  gazing  on  the  pilot  stars." 

Choice  and  apt  quotations  found  their  way  into  his  ser- 
mons, as  this  from  George  Eliot : 


8i 


The  days  and  the  months  pass  over  us  like  restless  little  birds, 
and  leave  the  marks  of  their  feet  backward  and  forward;  espe- 
cially when  they  are  like  birds  with  heavy  hearts,  then  they 
tread  heavily. 

On  several  occasions  he  used  this  quotation  as  ap- 
phcable  to  certain  men  gifted  in  organization : 

I  cannot  fiddle,  but  I  can  make  a  small  town  grow  into  a 
large  city. 

He  liked  to  trace  to  their  sources  familiar  quotations. 
These  phrases,  he  says,  were  some  of  IMatthew  Arnold's 
verbal  contributions  to  the  English  language : 

"  Sweetness  and  light,"  "  sweet  reasonableness,"  the  "  power 
outside  of  us  that  makes  for  righteousness,"  "conduct  being 
three-fourths  of  life,"  and  many  single  words  like  "  Philistines," 
"  Barbarians,"  "  Zeitgeist,"  have  become  an  integral  part  of 
English  speech. 

In  a  tribute  to  the  well-known  Lewis  family  of  Hamil- 
ton he  says : 

They  resemble  the  character  described  by  Homer — who  en- 
deared himself  to  all  men ;  for  he  befriended  them  all,  living 
in  a  house  by  the  side  of  the  road. 

These    words   are   as    truly    descriptive    of    his    own 

attitude:        ,,       ,  .  .  .       , 

Her  plam-song  piety  preferred 

Pure  life  to  precept.     If  she  erred 

She  knew  her  faults.    Her  softest  word 

Was  for  the  erring. 

On  the  other  hand,  he  had  learned  with  Emerson  the 
significance  of  a  "  warlike  attitude  "  which  "  the  man 
within  the  breast  assumes  "  if  he  would  meet  life  as  it  is ; 
or  as  Goethe  has  it : 

Thou  must  rise  or  fall, 
Thou  must  rule  and  win. 
Or  else  serve  and  lose. 
Suffer  or  triumph, 
Be  anvil  or  hammer. 


82  EDWARD   JUDSON,    INTERPRETER   OF   GOD 

His  soul  had  felt  the  contrast  in  the  following  lines 
for  no  man  loved  the  fields  better  than  he.  He  remarked 
to  the  writer  one  time  that  quiet  was  a  luxury  not  to  be 
had  in  a  big  town. 

What  Christ  Said 

I  said,  "  Let  me  walk  in  the  fields ; " 
He  said,  "  Nay,  walk  in  the  town;  " 

I  said,  "  There  are  no  flowers  there ;  " 
He  said,  "  No  flowers,  but  a  crown." 

I  said,  "  But  the  sky  is  black. 
There  is  nothing  but  noise  and  din  ;  " 

But  he  wept  as  he  sent  me  back — 
"  There  is  more,"  he  said,  "  there  is  sin." 

I  said,  "  But  the  air  is  thick, 

And  fogs  are  veiling  the  sun ;  " 
He  answered,  "  Yet  hearts  are  sick, 

And  souls  in  the  dark  undone." 

I  said,  "  I  shall  miss  the  light. 
And  friends  will  miss  me,  they  say;  " 

He  answered  me,  "  Choose  to-night 
If  I  am  to  miss  you  or  they." 

I  pleaded  for  time  to  be  given ; 

He  said,  "Is  it  hard  to  decide? 
It  will  not  seem  hard  in  heaven 

To  have  followed  the  steps  of  your  Guide." 

— George  Macdonald. 

Florence  Wilkinson  struck  a  note  to  which  his  heart 
responded,  for  had  he  not  dedicated  his  life  to  such  as 
those  of  whom  she  speaks  in  "The  Flower  Factory"? 

Lisabetta,  Marianina,  Fiametta,  Teresina, 

They  are  winding  stems  of  roses,  one  by  one,  one  by  one — 

Little  children  who  have  never  learned  to  play; 

Teresina  softly  crj^ing  that  her  fingers  ache  to-day. 

Tiny  Fiametta  nodding  when  the  twilight  slips  in,  gray. 

High  above  the  clattering  street,  ambulance,  and  fire-gong  beat. 

They  sit,  curling  crimson  petals,  one  by  one,  one  by  one. 


AUTHOR  83 

Lisabetta,  Marianina,  Fiametta,  Tercsina, 

They  have  never  seen  a  rose-bush  nor  a  dewdrop  in  the  sun. 

They  will  dream  of  the  \cndctta,  Teresina,  Fiametta, 

Of  a  Black  Hand  and  a  face  behind  a  grating; 

They  will  dream  of  cotton  petals,  endless,  crimson,  suffocating, 

Never  of  a  wild-rose  thicket  nor  the  singing  of  a  cricket; 

But  the  ambulance  will   bellow  through   the  wanness  of   theii] 

dreams, 
And  their  tired  lids  will  flutter  with  the  street's  hysteric  screams. 

Lisabetta,  Marianina,  Fiametta,  Teresina, 

They  are  winding  stems  of  roses,  one  by  one,  one  by  one. 

Let  them  have  a  long,  long  playtime.  Lord  of  Toil,  when  toil  is 

done! 
Fill  their  baby  hands  with  roses,  joyous  roses  of  the  sun. 

He  felt  the  appeal  of  such  poems  as  Kipling's  "  If," 
and  even  of  such  lines  as  "  The  Things  That  Count,"  by- 
Clarence  Urmy.  In  his  sermons  he  used  with  telling 
effect  his  ability  to  memorize  readily  long  quotations  from 
the  best  writers. 

These  words,  often  on  his  lips,  especially  during  his  last 
years,  were  understood  by  his  friends  as  a  reflection  of 
his  faith  in  the  ultimate  triumph  of  his  ideals: 

Before  the  monstrous  wrong  he  sets  him  down — 
One  man  against  a  stone-walled  city  of  sin. 
For  centuries  those  walls  have  been  a-building; 
Smooth  porphyr)^  they  slope  and  coldly  glass 
The  flying  storm  and  wheeling  sun.    No  chink, 
No  crevice  lets  the  thinnest  arrow  in. 
He  fights  alone,  and  from  the  cloudy  ramparts 
A  thousand  evil  faces  gibe  and  jeer  him. 
Let  him  lie  down  and  die ;  what  is  the  right. 
And  where  is  justice,  in  a  world  like  this? 
But  by  and  by,  earth  shakes  herself,  impatient ; 
And  down,  in  one  great  roar  of  ruin,  crash 
Watch-tower  and  citadel  and  battlements. 
When  the  red  dust  has  cleared,  the  lonely  soldier 
Stands  with  strange  thoughts  beneath  the  friendly  stars. 

—E.  R.  Sill. 


V 

4 

A   SOCIAL    PIONEER 

An  institutional  church,  then,  is  an  organized  body  of  Chris- 
tian believers,  who  finding  themselves  in  a  hard  and  uncon- 
genial environment,  supplement  the  ordinary  methods  of  the 
gospel — such  as  preaching,  prayer-meetings,  Sunday  School,  and 
pastoral  visitation — by  a  system  of  organized  kindness,  a  con- 
geries of  institutions,  which  by  touching  people  on  physical,  social, 
?nd  intellectual  sides,  will  conciliate  them  and  draw  them 
within  reach  of  the  gospel. — Edward  Jiidson. 

The  City  to  Which  He  Came 

NO  other  generation  witnessed  social  changes  as 
great  as  those  which  occurred  during  the  thirty 
years  that  Doctor  Judson  lived  and  worked  in  lower  New 
York,  and  certainly  few  men  have  been  permitted  to  have 
so  large  a  part  in  working  them  out  as  did  he. 

Ex-Ambassador  Bryce,  in  speaking  of  the  political  con- 
ditions in  New  York  in  the  early  eighties,  said : 

Evils  in  politics,  which  thirty  years  ago  were  considered  so 
normal  that  people  assumed  them  to  be  necessary,  are  now 
considered  scandals  which  must  be  attacked  and  expunged.  I 
remember  seeing  William  M.  Tweed  during  his  day,  and  I  re- 
member talking  to  some  of  your  good  citizens  of  New  York  in 
those  days,  and  I  remember  that  in  those  days  it  was  thought  that 
New  York  was  lying  helpless  under  a  yoke  that  could  not  be 
shaken  off.  Municipal  misgovernment  was  supposed  to  be  a  natu- 
ral and  necessary  feature  of  popular  government.  Democracy  was 
bearing,  so  men  said,  its  proper  fruit.  Fortunately,  there  arose 
a  generation  of  men  who  started  reform  in  New  York. 

In  the  same  year  that  Lord  Bryce  spoke  these  words 
Edward  Judson  referred  to  "  that  social  coinpunction 
which  formed  the  high-water  mark  of  our  civilization." 
84 


A   SOCIAL   PIONEER  85 

No  such  high-water  mark  was  visible  in  1881,  That  was 
before  the  charity  organization  movement  had  taken  defi- 
nite form  in  New  York.  Such  an  organization  had  been 
effected  in  New  Haven  and  in  Philadelphia  in  1878;  in 
Cincinnati  and  in  Brooklyn  the  following  year,  but  not 
until  1882  in  New  York.  Many  social  activities  now 
related  to  the  Charity  Organization  Society  were  not  then 
in  existence.  Hundreds  of  the  charities  now  listed  in  the 
charities  directory  had  not  so  much  as  been  thought  of. 

There  was  no  municipal  wood-yard  to  test  the  sincerity 
of  those  who  professed  willingness  to  work,  and  to  assist 
them  with  temporary  relief.  It  was  several  years  later, 
under  the  reform  administration  of  Mayor  Strong,  that 
a  municipal  lodging-house  was  established  (1898).  The 
maimed,  the  halt,  and  the  blind  were  seen  in  large  numbers 
upon  the  public  highways  because  neither  public  nor 
private  charity  had  been  organized  to  meet  the  real  needs 
and  to  sift  the  false  from  the  true. 

That  was  before  tenement-house  reform  had  recog- 
nition or  fruitage.  It  was  during  those  days  when  one- 
quarter  of  the  children  "  never  grew  up  to  lisp  the  sacred 
name  of  mother,"  one-third  "  never  reached  their  third 
year,"  and  one-half  "  never  reached  manhood  or  woman- 
hood," as  Jacob  Riis  later  pointed  out;  but  that  was  years 
before  Jacob  Riis  had  gained  any  recognition.  It  was 
at  the  time  of  the  rear  tenement-house,  in  which  the 
death-rate  was  three  times  greater  than  in  houses  stand- 
ing in  single  rows.  The  city  had  not  yet  learned  the  sig- 
nificance of  ^Tanning's  statement  that  "  Domestic  life 
creates  a  people,"  and  had  not  shared  in  Lord  Shaftes- 
bury's conviction :  "  I  am  certain  that  until  their  domi- 
ciliary conditions  are  Christianized  (I  can  use  no  less 
forcible  term),  all  hope  of  moral  and  social  improvement 
is  utterly  vain.  The  question  of  the  housing  of  the  people 
is  in  a  very  real  sense  a  religious  question." 


86  EDWARD   JUDSON,    INTERPRETER   OF   GOD 

The  day  of  the  settlement  house  had  not  yet  dawned  in 
America;  indeed,  at  that  very  time  Arnold  Toynbee  was 
working  at  the  settlement  idea  in  St.  Jude,  London. 
Two  years  later  the  first  university  settlement  was 
founded  by  Oxford  men;  but  it  was  not  until  1889  that 
the  first  settlement  was  established  in  New  York — the 
College  Settlement,  soon  followed  by  the  University  Set- 
tlement in  New  York  and  Hull  House  in  Chicago — all  in 
response  to  that  social  compunction  which  was  finding 
expression. 

The  Fresh-air  Movement  was  just  taking  shape.  In 
1877  the  Rev.  Willard  Parsons,  late  manager  of  the 
Tribune  Fresh-air  Fund,  took  children  from  New  York 
as  guests  of  his  congregation  in  Sherman,  Pennsylvania. 
In  1881  the  movement  was  still  in  its  swaddling-clothes. 

At  that  time  the  municipality  did  not  have  any  sense  of 
social  obligation.  Doctor  Judson  had  been  in  New  York 
nearly  ten  years  before  there  was  any  marked  social  evo- 
lution in  the  public  schools.  Public  lectures  were  insti- 
tuted by  the  Board  of  Education  in  1889;  kindergartens 
were  introduced  in  1893.  In  those  days  there  were  no 
roof-gardens,  public  playgrounds,  recreation  centers,  nor 
vacation  schools.  The  municipality  was  waiting  for 
the  church  to  lead  it  into  social  ministry,  as  indeed  it 
had  waited  for  the  church  to  establish  the  first  schools. 

But  social  compunction  had  found  meager  expression 
in  the  church  itself.  The  church  had  not  learned  how 
to  organize  this  social  impulse,  for  while  it  had  always 
recognized  the  duty  of  the  strong  to  bear  the  infirmities 
of  the  weak,  it  had  counted  upon  the  spirit  of  neighbor- 
liness  and  the  hand  of  private  charity  to  meet  neighbor- 
hood needs,  except  as  there  had  long  been  the  necessity 
of  gathering  children  into  orphanages  and  other  depend- 
ents into  other  special  institutions.  But  the  church  had 
not  learned  to  adjust  itself  to  the  social  problems  of  the 


A   SOCIAL   PIONEER  87 

congested  tenement  districts,  for  they  were  a  new  social 
phenomenon. 

The  term  "  institutional  church  "  had  not  been  coined. 
It  was  first  used  by  President  Tucker,  of  Dartmouth 
College,  in  a  public  address  in  Boston ;  or,  more  strictly, 
he  referred  to  the  Berkeley  Temple  as  institutioiialidng, 
but  was  quoted  as  having  referred  to  Berkeley  Temple 
as  an  institutional  church;  thus  it  was  through  a  news- 
paper blunder  that  the  term  was  used.  There  were  few 
churches  that  were  making  any  attempt  to  institution- 
alize— they  had  not  thought  to  "  socialize."  It  had  be- 
come the  tendency  of  the  family  church  to  minister  to 
exclusive  classes  in  restricted  neighborhoods,  and  the 
church  had  followed  families  up-town  as  though  im- 
pelled by  a  great  economic  force. 

New  York  City  has  never  been  characteristically  Amer- 
ican. It  has  ever  been  on  the  frontier  of  successive 
foreign  invasions.  As  a  geologist  may  trace  geological 
history  by  a  study  of  rock  formation,  stratified  by  suc- 
cessive deposits,  so  New  York's  racial  history  may  be 
traced  by  the  stratification  of  its  people.  At  the  time 
Doctor  Judson  came  to  New  York  the  leading  foreign 
groups  were  German  and  Irish — neither  at  that  time  as- 
similated, each  creating  racial  aversions  just  as  the 
Italians,  and  the  Russians,  and  the  Poles  have  created 
like  antagonisms  since. 

Neither  social  organizations  nor  the  churches  had 
arisen  to  their  high  opportunities  either  to  Americanize 
or  to  Christianize  these  foreign  elements.  Classes  for 
teaching  English  to  foreigners  were  hardly  known.  The 
church  had  not  given  the  gospel  in  the  mother  tongue 
except  to  a  few  nationalities.  According  to  the  City 
Record  for  1881  the  only  organized  non-English-speaking 
Protestant  churches  outside  of  the  Lutheran  group  were 
for  the  Germans,  the  Swedes,  and  the  Welsh. 
G 


88       EDWARD  JUDSON,  INTERPRETER  OF  GOD 

In  his  own  denomination  Doctor  Judson  found  foreign- 
speaking  churches  only  for  the  Germans  and  the  Swedes. 
There  were  rehgious  services  for  the  Jews  and  for  the 
Chinese,  and  the  year  of  his  arrival  in  New  York  a  mis- 
sion for  the  French  was  opened  by  the  Baptist  City  Mis- 
sion Society.  In  the  summer  of  iSSi  Tent  Evangel,  said 
to  be  the  first  organized  tent  movement  in  New  York, 
was  opened  by  the  same  society. 

A  comparative  study  of  the  denominational  strength 
of  Protestant  churches  in  New  York  City  for  1881  is  not 
available,  but  we  are  indebted  to  the  New  York  "Evening 
Post "  for  such  a  study  based  on  the  figures  for  1882. 
The  relative  strength  of  the  several  leading  denomina- 
tions was  as  follows :  Episcopal,  25,733 ;  Presbyterian, 
21,520;  Baptist,  13,027;  Methodist,  12,856;  Reformed, 
6,869  J  Congregational,  2,449  J  a  total  of  82,454  for  the  six 
leading  denominations  as  compared  with  67,940  in  the 
former  decade.  This  study  does  not  include  the  several 
branches  of  the  Lutherans,  which  have  now  come  to 
occupy  second  place. 

At  that  time  among  the  leading  figures  in  the  several 
denominations  in  New  York  City  were:  Baptist,  Dr. 
Thomas  Armitage,  Dr.  Robert  S.  MacArthur,  and  Dr. 
William  R.  Williams;  Episcopal,  Dr.  Henry  C.  Potter 
(rector  of  Grace  Church)  ;  Lutheran,  Dr.  G.  U.  Wenner, 
Dr.  Stephen  H.  Tyng,  and  Dr.  G.  F.  Krotel;  Presby- 
terian, Dr.  John  Hall,  Dr.  Charles  H.  Parkhurst,  and  Dr. 
Howard  Crosby;  Congregational,  Dr.  W.  M.  Taylor. 

The  New  York  "  Post "  in  1888  gave  this  interesting 
observation  on  religious  conditions  on  the  basis  of  a  ten- 
year  survey : 

Within  five  years  nearly  or  quite  a  quarter  of  million  souls 
have  been  added  to  the  population  of  the  metropolis,  and  it  is 
important  as  well  as  instructive,  to  know  to  what  extent  this 
addition  to  our  social  integral  has  become  a  part  of  the  organ- 


A   SOCIAL    PIOXEER  89 

izcd  religious  life  of  the  community,  and  to  what  school  of 
thought  or  form  of  worship,  if  to  any,  it  most  conspicuously  tends. 
In  view  of  the  social  agitations  forced  upon  the  American  people 
in  late  years  by  the  enormous  influx  of  alien  elements,  the  inquiry 
has  something  more  than  a  merely  speculative  interest.  It  is 
admitted  on  all  sides  that  the  church  is  a  social  conser\'ator.  It 
needs  to  be  stated  that  in  this  city  the  Christian  Church  as  a 
numerical  aggregate,  at  least  as  far  as  most  of  the  Protestant 
denominations  are  concerned,  falls  steadily  behind  the  ratio  of 
increase  in  population.  Only  one  denomination,  the  Episcopalian, 
has  exceeded  the  ratio  of  growth  in  population.  That  the  prob- 
lem of  Christianizing  this  heterogeneous  and  indifferent  popula- 
tion is  not  a  simple  one  needs  not  to  be  pointed  out.  That  money 
is  an  important  element  admits  of  no  doubt. 

These  conclusions  are  borne  out  by  an  extract  from  the 
report  of  the  Trinity  Corporation  in  1877: 

In  consequence  of  the  sale  and  removal  of  churches,  the  lower 
part  of  the  city  of  New  York  has  become  a  mission  field,  in  the 
strict  sense  of  the  words.  The  old  parish  churches  have  dis- 
appeared, the  clerg>'men  are  gone,  the  public  worship  of  Almighty 
God  has  ceased  in  places  where  it  had  long  been  carried  on,  and 
little  remains  to  call  to  the  minds  of  the  population  the  truths 
that  there  is  a  Supreme  Being,  and  that  it  is  the  duty  of  man 
to  believe  in  him,  to  fear  him,  to  love  him,  and  to  honor  his 
holy  day  and  name. 

Such  was  New  York  as  Edward  Judson  found  it.  No 
finer  analysis  of  the  situation  can  be  found  than  that 
given  by  him: 

Just  as  soon  as  the  island  widens  out  northward,  business 
tends  to  fringe  the  water-fronts  and  the  main  thoroughfares, 
and  it  ascends  skyward  by  means  of  elevators,  and  there  are 
left  in  the  interstices  behind  the  congested  masses  of  population, 
denser  than  anj'Avhere  else  in  the  world.  People  are  packed  to- 
gether in  tenement-houses  like  sardines  in  a  box. 

The  Latin  and  Celtic  races  predominate  over  the  Saxon. 
Materialistic  and  sacramentarian  notions  form  the  rehgion  of 
the  people.  Evangelical  people  are  fleeing,  as  from  a  plague, 
and  their  places  are  rapidly  being  filled  by  families  that  are 
unresponsive  to  your  gospel.    Day  and  night  you  are  confronted 


90  EDWARD  JUDSON,   INTERPRETER  OF  GOD 

by  the  hideous  forms  of  pauperism,  prostitution,  intemperance, 
and  crime.  You  are  like  one  who  with  great  expense  and 
pains  builds  a  Hbrary  in  a  place  where  people  have  no  taste  for 
books. 

The  streets  swarm  with  children  like  a  rabbit-warren.  There 
is  a  saloon  on  every  corner.  These  people  outvote  us  at  every 
election.  We  catch  their  diseases.  The  miasma  from  this  social 
swamp  steals  upward  and  infects  our  whole  municipal  life,  and 
our  cities  determine  the  character  and  destiny  of  our  coun- 
try. We  must  be  either  hammer  or  anvil — either  subdue  these 
people  with  the  gospel  or  in  the  end  be  assimilated  by  them. 

Now  these  great  masses  of  people  left  down-town  by  the 
upward  trend  of  business  and  genteel  residences,  and  composed 
largely  of  foreign  elements  dominated  by  materialistic  or  sacra- 
mentarian  notions,  constitute  at  our  very  doors  a  mission  field 
of  unparalleled  richness  and  promise.  But,  like  all  rich  mission 
fields,  it  is  hard  to  work,  and,  if  neglected,  becomes  a  menace. 
We  have  a  new  and  very  dangerous  phase  of  social  alienation. 
The  tendency  is  for  the  intelligent,  well-to-do,  and  church- 
going  people  to  withdraw  little  by  little  from  this  part  of  the 
city. 

This,  he  said,  is  the  impression  which  the  flight  of 
churches  makes  on  working  men : 

An  untutored  working  woman  or  man  who  toils  hard  and 
long  for  what  will  buy  but  little  of  life's  needs,  who  has  seen 
congregation  after  congregation  leave  the  lower  districts  of  our 
city  because  fashion  is  retreating  northward  before  the  advance 
of  business  and  it  is  not  considered  pleasant  or  in  the  best 
form  to  maintain  a  church  in  a  region  whose  private  houses 
are  being  gradually  transformed  into  tenements — any  hard- 
pressed  wage-worker  not  blessed  with  strong  faith  in  God,  who 
has  seen  Christianity  moving  out  of  his  neighborhood  into  the 
precincts  of  wealth,  and  the  churches  dying  as  it  were  before 
his  eyes,  is  apt  to  feel  somehow  as  if  Christianity  were  deserting 
him,  as  if,  because  there  is  a  deep  snow-drift  in  front  of  my 
door,  I  should  infer  that  there  is  deep  snow  all  over  the  plain. 
His  belief  in  a  good  God,  in  a  providing  Father,  seems  to 
weaken,  and  we  must  not  be  surprised  that  doubt,  at  last,  sup- 
plants faith  and  atheism  grows.  So  come  despair  and  hope- 
lessness, carelessness  and  improvidence.     There  is  no   founda- 


A    SOCIAL   PIONEER 


91 


tion  for  character  but  the  teachings  of  the  Christian  religion. 
This  character  which  alone  can  bear  comfort  must  be  built  up  by 
the  church. 

He  characterized  thus  the  tendency  of  the  church : 

We  are  like  a  working  man  who  uses  his  strongest  tools  where 
is  the  easiest  work  to  do,  or  a  general  who  turns  his  heaviest 
guns  upon  the  weakest  point  in  the  enemy's  line,  or  a  physician 
who  injects  his  medicine  into  the  least  diseased  portions  of  his 
patient's  body.  We  make  a  mistake  of  huddling  our  best  preach- 
ers and  our  most  amply  equipped  churches  in  that  part  of  the 
city  where  they  are  least  needed,  and  where  refining  influences 
are  most  abundant;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  just  where  the 
population  is  densest  and  materialism  most  strongly  intrenched, 
we  bring  to  bear  our  weakest  and  poorest  appliances.  It  is  as 
though  during  a  cold  night  one  should  unconsciously  gather  the 
bedclothes  up  around  one's  neck,  leaving  the  extremities  stark 
and  chill. 

With  searching  sarcasm  he  analyzed  the  work  of  the 
minister  who  is  shrewd  enough  to  seek  a  "  favorable  " 
location  for  his  church. 

If  he  is  a  shrewd  man,  he  will  always  be  careful  to  select  such 
a  spot— where  the  social  currents  converge  in  his  favor.  He  will 
call  it  securing  a  "strategic  position."  But  the  very  swiftness 
of  your  success  awakens  misgivings.  You  are  surprised  that 
with  this  environment  the  church  of  Christ  should  advance  with 
such  long,  easy  strides.  You  begin  to  ask  yourself  the  question 
that  fell  from  the  lips  of  the  aged  patriarch  Isaac  when  his 
younger  son  undertook  to  palm  himself  off  as  the  elder,  and 
spread  before  him  the  savory  but  premature  dish  of  venison, 
"How  is  it  that  thou  hast  found  it  so  quickly,  my  son?"  You 
proceed  to  analyze  the  audience  you  have  gathered,  and  you 
discover  it  is  composed  of  people  who  went  to  church  before. 
You  explore  the  ecclesiastical  pedigree  of  those  who  fill  your 
pews,  and  you  find  them  registered.  You  have  only  succeeded  in 
getting  a  handful  here,  and  a  handful  there,  from  this  church 
and  from  that.  There  is  no  production  of  new  material.  It  is 
merely  a  sleight-of-hand  performance,  as  when  you  turn  a 
kaleidoscope,  and  the  same  identical  pieces  of  glass  shift  and 
form  a  new  combination.    You  have  really  made  no  impression 


92  EDWARD   JUDSON,    INTERPRETER   OF   GOD 

upon  the  great  non-churchgoing  man.  The  acute  pleasure  you 
feel  in  seeing  so  many  people  in  your  church  is  a  good  deal 
mitigated  by  the  thought  that  another  minister  here  and  there 
is  correspondingly  depressed  by  noting  their  absence  from  his. 

He  placed  the  responsibility  for  the  weakness  of  the 
churches  down-town,  not  so  much  upon  the  few  who  re- 
main, as  upon  the  many  who  in  taking  up  residence 
in  more  favored  locations,  assume  no  responsibility  for 
the  district  they  have  left: 

The  wealthier  people  are  moving  into  the  suburbs ;  they  come 
into  the  city  to  make  their  bread,  but  go  into  the  suburbs  to  make 
their  homes.  This  tendency  is  accelerated  as  the  means  of  trans- 
portation are  made  more  perfect.  The  very  poor  are  left  behind 
in  this  general  decampment,  and  being  out  of  sight  are  naturally 
out  of  mind.  To  live  in  New  York  in  these  times  requires  some- 
thing of  the  spirit  of  self-sacrifice  to  which  Nehemiah  alludes 
in  the  words :  "  The  people  blessed  all  the  men  who  willingly 
offered  themselves  to  dwell  at  Jerusalem." 

Down-town  churches  succumb  to  the  slow  process  of  decay, 
just  as  in  some  great  northern  lake  the  construction  of  a  dam 
causes  the  water  to  rise  and  to  submerge  the  roots  of  the  trees 
that  fringe  its  shores,  so  that  lifeless  and  despoiled  of  their 
verdure,  they  stand  there  like  pale,  gaunt  skeletons.  And  this 
march  of  decay  creeps  slowly  up  the  island,  as  dropsy,  beginning 
with  the  feet,  climxbs  slowly  up  until  it  floods  the  vitals. 

If  the  rich  and  the  poor  are  ever  to  meet  together,  it  must  be 
in  the  poor  man's  territory;  for  money  and  locomotion  are  cor- 
relative terms. 

What  was  his  strategy  ? 

It  is  not  strange  that  many  good  people  are  shy  of  church  insti- 
tutionalism.  They  say  that  what  we  want  is  "the  simple 
gospel,"  and,  if  Christ  be  lifted  up,  he  will  draw  all  men  to 
him.  But  the  difficulty  is  to  bring  men  within  reach  of  the 
gospel.  How  shall  they  believe  in  him  of  whom  they  have  not 
heard?  The  preacher  is  often  like  one  who  rings  a  silver  bell 
in  a  vacuum.  What  is  the  use  of  transmuting  the  gospel  into 
atmospheric  vibrations,  if  there  are  no  ears  within  the  reach  of 
these  vibrations?  Church  institutionalism  is  nothing  more  than 
systematic,  organized  kindness,  which  conciliates  the  hostile  and 


A   SOCIAL  PIONEER  93 

indifferent,  alluring  them  within  reach,  and  softening  their  hearts 
for  the  reception  of  the  word  of  Hfe.  It  can  never  take  the 
place  of  the  gospel.  All  the  old,  tried  methods  must  be  con- 
served— well-thought-out  and  inspiring  sermons,  attractive  prayer- 
meetings  and  Sundiiy  School,  faithful  and  painstaking  pastoral 
visitation.  The  worst-off  need  the  best  we  have  of  preaching, 
music,  architecture — all  the  rest,  not  cold  victuals  and  a  servants' 
dining-room — a  church,  not  a  mission.  My  own  rule  is  to  preach 
twice  a  Sunday,  attend  my  Sunday  School,  conduct  my  weekly 
prayer-meetings,  and  make  fifty  calls  a  week. 

His  thought  was  not  to  estabhsh  a  mission,  but  that  the 
church  should  take  up  its  mission.    He  says : 

Rescue  missions,  gospel  halls,  and  the  like  are  only  feeble  and 
hectic  substitutes  for  vigorous  church  organizations.  The  church 
should  have  its  missions  in  a  social  swamp,  and  begin  by  being 
itself  a  mission. 

His  hope  was  in  the  ministry  of  the  local  church,  not 
in  the  service  of  Christian  people  through  other  organiza- 
tions. 

In  my  opinion  this  definite  social  organism,  the  local  church, 
a  group  of  Christians  who  meet  habitually  in  one  place  for  wor- 
ship, the  preaching  of  the  word,  and  the  celebration  of  the 
sacraments,  contains  the  potency  for  the  cure  of  all  the  ills  that 
flesh  is  heir  to.  Here  lies  the  solution  to  every  social  problem. 
Let  no  other  society  displace  in  our  consciousness  the  local  church. 

Such  was  Edward  Judson's  theory ;  how  did  he  attempt 
to  apply  it?  He  built  in  faith — faith  in  God,  in  the  peo- 
ple, in  himself,  and  in  his  method.  His  commitment  of 
himself  was  absolute  and  irrevocable: 

I  have  heard  "the  sound  of  the  going  in  the  tops  of  the 
mulberry  trees,"  and  I  have  tried  to  bestir  myself  for  the  battle. 
I  believe  there  is  before  me  an  invisible  guide,  and  I  propose 
to  follow  him.  I  do  not  dream  of  such  a  thing  as  want  of  real 
success.  There  is  not  a  spot  on  Manhattan  Island  so  favorably 
located  as  this  for  a  church.  I  have  studied  this  island  care- 
fully.   The  blessing  is  to  come. 


94  EDWARD   JUDSON,    INTERPRETER   OF   GOD 

With  these  words  he  closed  his  sermon  on  the  third  Sun- 
day of  his  pastorate,  October  23,  1881.  This  was  his 
challenge  to  his  church. 

Without  neglecting  preaching,  the  prayer-meeting,  and 
pastoral  visitation,  he  at  once  brought  into  being  a  system 
of  organized  kindness — a  congeries  of  institutions  which 
the  neighborhood  needed  and  which  marked  an  epoch  in 
the  method  of  the  Church. 

Children  made  an  instant  appeal  to  him.  He  felt  that 
"  the  key  to  the  problem  of  city  evangelization  is  held  in 
the  puny  hands  of  a  little  child."  Both  quantitatively 
and  qualitatively,  the  child  seemed  to  have  the  primacy. 
During  his  first  summer  in  New  York  he  instituted  fresh- 
air  work.  The  first  home  to  be  established  was  known 
as  the  Kinmuth  Memorial,  located  in  Hamilton,  New 
York;  the  second  among  the  hills  of  Vermont,  at  Brat- 
tleboro ;  the  third  at  Little  Silver,  New  Jersey.  To  each 
of  these  homes,  as  indeed  to  private  houses,  the  children 
were  sent  for  periods  of  two  weeks  each.  This  fresh-air 
work  was  not  limited  to  children,  but  included  the  aged 
and  the  sick,  and  overworked  shop-girls.  Those  who  were 
ill — some  of  them  victims  of  cruel  social  surroundings — 
were  sent  to  special  homes  for  the  whole  summer.  It 
would  be  difficult  to  find  service  of  a  higher  grade  than 
that  of  Miss  Anna  L.  Isham,  now  Mrs.  Owen  A,  Palmer, 
of  Brooklyn,  who  assisted  Doctor  Judson  for  many  years 
in  this  department  of  work, 

A  ministry  unique  at  the  time  was  established  during 
these  early  years.  A  drinking-fountain,  supplied  with 
chilled  water,  was  installed  in  the  corner  of  the  church 
building.  This  fountain,  with  its  social  background,  is 
graphically  described  in  the  New  York  "  World "  of 
August  15,  1885: 

We  are  losing  babies  at  the  rate  of  forty  or  fifty  a  day,  the 
eflfect  of  heat  alone.  .  .  There  are  days  in  this  August  month 


ICK-WATER   FOUXTAIX  AT  CORNER  OF  CIIUIU  II 


A   SOCIAL   PIONEER  95 

of  blisters  when  men  say  to  themselves,  "Hang  me  if  I  can 
stand  this  much  longer"— and  then  they  take  a  drink.  It  is 
hard  enough  for  men  of  serge  and  flannel,  with  palm-leaf  fans 
and  money,  to  endure  this  scorching  weather,  and  observation 
teaches  me  that  the  laborers  on  the  streets  manage  to  sustain  the 
infliction,  but  how  the  women  and  children  stand  it  is  a  puzzler. 

I  strolled  down  the  Ninth  ward  the  other  day,  and  turning 
into  Bedford  Street,  passed  an  old  Baptist  church.  I  saw  a 
crowd  surrounding  an  ice-water  fountain.  Some  children  were 
carrj-ing  away  water  in  pitchers  and  cans,  others  were  drinking, 
and  pronounced  the  water  cool  and  refreshing.  Then  a  truck- 
man coming  in  from  Varick  Street  stopped  and,  stepping  down 
from  his  wagon,  drank  the  water  with  an  evident  relish. 

I  enjoyed  all  that,   and  inquired  about  the   fountain. 

Then  I  learned  that  the  church  had  placed  it  there  for  the 
accommodation  of  the  people  living  about,  for  the  purpose  of 
counteracting,  in  a  measure  at  least,  the  effects  of  the  liquor  shop. 
First,  then,  a  woman  with  a  well-filled  pitcher  came  from 
the  fountain,  and  I  questioned  her.  She  was  full  of  praise  for 
the  people  through  whose  liberality  she  could  get  what  she 
could  not  procure  herself.  "  The  fountain  is  a  blessing— indeed 
it  is  that,"  she  said  earnestly.  When  her  child  was  sick,  and  she 
that  poor  she  couldn't  buy  ice,  and  the  child  cried  for  a  cooling 
drink,  didn't  she  go  in  the  middle  of  the  night  and  draw  water 
just  as  cool  and  fresh  as  it  was  in  the  middle  of  the  day?  "I 
wouldn't  have  known  what  to  do  without  it,"  she  said.  "  It  is 
a  blessing  indeed,"  she  repeated  with  much  feeling.  "  And  then," 
she  continued,  "when  they  heard  that  the  child  was  sick,  they 
sent  flowers,  and  offered  to  send  the  child  into  the  country— 
and  I  don't  even  belong  there." 

When  the  jMemorial  Church  was  erected  on  Wash- 
ington Square,  this  feature  of  the  work  was  enlarged. 
The  fountain,  built  into  the  corner  of  the  church  with 
fine  architectural  effect,  was  dedicated  to  the  memory 
of  Rev.  Duncan  Dunbar,  long  pastor  of  the  MacDougal 
Street  Baptist  Church,  Two  other  ice-water  fountains 
were  later  installed  on  the  corner  of  West  Third  Street 
and  Thompson,  in  the  rear  of  the  church  property,  one 
a  gift  of  Helen  Gould.     At  present  they  are  provided 


96  EDWARD   JUDSON,    INTERPRETER   OF   GOD 

with  water  chilled  by  an  ice-plant  in  the  engine-room  of 
the  Judson  Hotel.  For  a  shorter  period  the  Judson 
Memorial  maintained  other  ice-water  fountains  at  the 
Industrial  Christian  Alliance  on  Bleecker  Street;  at  the 
Mariners'  Temple,  Oliver  and  Henry  streets;  and  at  the 
Second  Avenue  Baptist  Church. 
A  New  York  "  Sun  "  reporter  more  recently  has  said : 

All  day  long  a  crowd  surrounds  the  drinking-basin  at  the 
Thompson  Street  comer  of  the  Judson  Memorial  Baptist  Church. 
The  crowd  is  as  cosmopolitan  as  the  neighborhood.  About  six 
o'clock  in  the  evening  the  crowd  is  thickest;  sometimes  it  is  so 
large  as  to  block  the  corner. 

The  visitor  from  the  New  York  "  World,"  whose  words 
are  quoted  above,  tells  this  story : 

Then  I  saw  some  children  enter,  and  I  went  in  with  them. 
The  sight  which  met  me  would  have  made  any  one  glad.  I 
saw  a  lady  and  some  bright  healthy  children  busy  with  two  great 
baskets  of  flowers.  As  quickly  as  they  could  be  arranged  they 
were  put  into  bouquets;  then  willing  hands  received  them,  and 
quickly  they  were  on  their  way  to  brighten  some  sick  chamber 
with  their  fragrance  and  beauty.  The  lady  in  charge  kindly  and 
courteously  volunteered  to  give  all  the  information  I  desired. 
Twice  a  week  (Tuesdays  and  Fridays)  large  baskets  of  flowers 
are  received  and  distributed.  Willing  little  girls,  only  too  anx- 
ious to  do  good,  carry  them  to  all  those  in  the  vicinity  who  are 
known  to  be  sick,  and  to  all  others  who  are  infirm,  and  to  the 
aged.  Be  they  of  whatever  creed  or  nationality,  if  a  bunch  of 
pretty  flowers  can  cheer  or  brighten  their  desolation,  they  are  not 
forgotten. 

The  Rev.  Edward  Simmons,  an  efficient  worker  at  the 
church  during  the  last  years  of  Doctor  Judson's  ministry, 
has  given  these  interesting  flower  stories : 

Tony  is  a  lad  of  about  seven  years,  and  the  leader  of  the 
toughest  and  meanest  gang  of  boys  around  Washington  Square. 
The  gang  is  composed  of  fifteen  lads  of  from  five  to  eight 
years  of  age,  and  their  main  occupation  is  seeking  "chases" 
and  stealing  anything  they  lay  their  hands  upon  when  they  get 


A   SOCIAL   PIONEER  97 

a  chance.  They  have  been  seen  to  hold  up  boys  and  rifle  their 
pockets,  and  steal  toys,  velocipedes,  and  other  playthings  from 
the  children  who  spend  their  playhours  in  the  park. 

Tony,  the  leader  and  tyrant  of  the  gang,  is  a  little  fellow  with 
a  large  capacity  for  mischief.  Many  efforts  have  been  made  to 
reach  him  and  interest  him  in  the  church  and  the  services  for 
children,  but  he  has  had  a  grudge  against  us  and  has  sought 
every  way  to  trouble  us. 

The  day  we  received  the  flowers  from  the  North  Orange 
Church  found  Tony  leading  the  gang  in  making  life  miserable 
for  everybody  in  sight,  and  snatching  the  flowers  away  from 
the  children  who  had  them.  I  picked  out  the  most  beautiful 
rose  and  went  out  to  Tony.  He  saw  a  chance  to  bother  me 
and  started  in,  but  when  I  hcfd  out  the  rose  and  said,  "Here, 
Tony,  I  brought  this  for  you,"  he  looked  pleased  and  came  and 
took  it.  It  gave  me  an  opportunity  to  have  a  little  talk  with 
him.  With  my  arm  on  his  shoulder,  and  the  gang  surrounding 
us,  I  told  him  I  wanted  to  be  his  friend  and  have  him  for  mine ; 
that  if  he  were  to  be  my  friend  he  must  not  bother  the  people 
and  must  stop  stealing.  Then  I  took  the  whole  gang  to  the 
church,  and  gave  them  each  a  little  bunch  of  flowers  and  Tony 
a  bunch  to  take  to  his  mother.  For  the  rest  of  that  day  at  least 
Tony  and  his  gang  were  very  good,  and  now  when  I  see  them 
around  here,  instead  of  expecting  a  stone  thrown  at  me,  and 
my  hat  knocked  ofiF,  and  to  be  hooted  and  sworn  at,  Tony  and 
his  followers  run  up  to  me  to  shake  hands,  and  talk  about  the 
good  times  we  hope  to  have  this  summer.  It  is  the  first  step, 
we  trust,  in  winning  Tony  for  Jesus. 

Angelina,  a  little  barefooted  girl  in  a  dirty  ragged  dress 
and  with  sparkling  brown  eyes,  came  for  a  flower  when  she 
saw  the  other  children  with  them,  and  so  I  took  her  into  the 
room  where  the  flowers  were  on  the  table,  and  she  was  so 
amazed  at  seeing  so  many  that  she  just  stood  and  looked  at 
them.  I  told  her  to  help  herself  to  a  small  bunch,  choosing 
just  the  kind  she  wished.  She  didn't  know  which  ones  to  take 
at  first,  there  were  so  many;  then  she  chose  some  buttercups. 
I  asked  her  why  she  didn't  take  some  of  the  others,  and  she 
said,  "  They're  too  pretty ;  I  didn't  think  you'd  let  me  have  any 
of  them."  I  chose  one  of  each  kind  to  make  a  little  bunch,  and 
gave  them  to  her.  It  was  a  beautiful  sight  to  see  her  happiness, 
and  it  was  also  touching  to  see  her  stop  every  few  steps  and 
look  at  them  and  kiss  them. 


98  EDWAPD   JUDSON,    INTERPRETER   OF    GOD 

The  last  bunch,  some  daisies,  was  given  to  a  Httle  girl  whose 
joy  was  indescribable  as  she  started  out  of  the  door.  A  lot  of 
children  had  gatliered  there  to  ask  for  some,  among  them  a 
crippled  girl  who  made  her  way  on  crutches,  for  both  limbs 
were  in  braces.  When  I  told  them  there  were  no  more  flowers 
their  faces  grew  very  long  and  sad,  and  they  envied  the  little 
girl  with  the  last  bunch.  I  pointed  to  her  and  said,  "  She  has 
the  last  of  the  flowers."  Just  as  I  did  so  she  saw  the  little  girl 
on  crutches.  Then  I  realized  that  there  is  ofttimes  more  good 
in  people  than  we  think;  for  she  took  the  bunch  which  I  knew 
she  prized  dearly  and  divided  it  with  the  little  cripple. 

The  history  of  the  kindergarten  is  an  interesting  story, 
for  in  its  evolution  it  has  undergone  a  marked  change. 
Edward  Judson  was  probably  the  first  in  New  York 
City,  perhaps  in  the  United  States,  to  establish  a  church 
kindergarten.  Children  under  school  age,  for  whom  there 
was  no  educational  and  little  religious  or  social  pro- 
vision, appealed  strongly  to  him — but  the  primary  appeal 
was  religious.  He  saw  the  opportunity  to  give  young 
children  religious  training  before  they  entered  the  public 
schools  where  it  would  perforce  be  denied  them.  There- 
fore about  1885  he  opened  a  kindergarten,  but  received 
children  of  primary  age  as  well.  A  nominal  tuition  of 
five  cents  a  week  was  charged.    He  said : 

All  systematic  study  of  the  Bible  is,  of  necessity,  rigidly  ex- 
cluded from  our  public  schools.  .  .  We  have  indeed  the  Sunday 
School  as  a  medium  for  the  impartation  of  scriptural  knowl- 
edge; but  we  fear  that  this  appliance,  admirable  though  it  be, 
is  quite  inadequate  to  the  mighty  task.  .  .  It  seems  that  provi- 
dentially we  are  granted,  as  Christians,  one  great  relief  and 
opportunity  amid  our  difficulties.  The  church  kindergarten  opens 
the  way  out.  The  public-school  system  excludes  these  extremely 
little  ones,  and  in  fact,  I  am  informed  that  in  the  public  schools 
the  youngest  scholars  admitted  are  very  much  crowded. 

Now,  here  is  the  opportunity  for  the  church.  Let  her  take 
these  little  ones  daily  to  her  bosom,  imparting  to  them  in  their 
tender  years  that  nurture  which  shall  enable  them  through 
their  future  career  to  endure  the  shocks  of  skeptical  thought. 


A   SOCIAL  PIONEER  99 

We  suggest  that  this  important  want  may  be  partially  met  by 
the  church  kindergarten.  It  should  be  held  in  some  part  of 
the  church  edifice.  Let  there  be  a  session  of  three  hours  every 
day  except  Saturday  and  Sunday.  Let  an  intelligent  and  con- 
secrated lady  be  the  teacher.  A  half-hour  at  least  each  day 
should  be  devoted  exclusively  to  interesting  and  consecutive 
Bible  study.  We  cannot  compete  with  the  State  in  the  educa- 
tion of  the  older  children. 

This  kindergarten  was  transferred  to  the  new  building 
on  Washington  Square,  and  a  second  kindergarten  was 
started;  later,  largely  because  of  financial  stress,  one 
was  turned  over  to  the  management  of  the  Board  of 
Education  and  the  other  to  the  New  York  Kindergarten 
Association ;  another  instance  of  an  important  activity 
inaugurated  by  the  church  being  taken  over  by  the  State 
and  stripped  of  its  distinctive  character. 

Compassion  for  the  child  and  the  instinct  of  benevo- 
lence were  so  strong  in  Edward  Judson  that  he  planned 
for  the  permanent  care  of  young  children.  Provision  for 
the  care  of  orphans  had  been  made  by  scores  of  other 
institutions,  but  children  whose  parents  were  unfit  or 
unable  to  care  for  them  had  been  quite  neglected.  The 
very  poor  do  not  know  how,  or  are  unable,  to  meet  an 
emergency.  It  is  at  these  hours  of  special  stress  that  a 
helping  hand  may  save  a  family.  So  it  came  about  that 
when  the  Judson  jNIemorial  was  erected,  arrangement  was 
made  for  the  care  of  a  small  company  of  children  through 
the  benevolent  provision  made  in  the  will  of  Mr.  Hiram 
Deats,  late  of  Flemington,  New  Jersey.  When  it  was 
found  that  the  children  could  not  be  cared  for  advan- 
tageously on  Washington  Square,  and  that  the  Home  in- 
terfered with  the  success  of  the  Judson  Hotel,  a  fine 
site  was  secured  in  Somerville,  New  Jersey,  and  a  suit- 
able building  erected.  From  that  time  to  this  the  Home 
has  sheltered  from  twenty  to  thirty  helpless  children, 
giving  them  religious  care  and  ki«dly  nurture.    Now  the 


loo  EDWARD  JUDSON,    INTERPRETER   OF   GOD 

granting  of  widows'  pensions,  the  tendency  to  board  de- 
pendent children  in  families,  and  the  later  establishment 
of  other  homes  have  decreased  the  need  for  this  one,  and 
it  will  probably  be  used  for  the  children  of  foreign  mis- 
sionaries. 

Far  more  perplexing  than  the  care  of  children  and 
with  less  compensating  results  is  the  ministry  to  the  very 
poor.  Much  of  it  is  not  even  remedial,  but  is  frankly 
palliative,  leaving  the  individuals  much  as  they  were,  and 
contributing  little  or  nothing  to  the  solution  of  the  social 
problem.  And  yet  just  that  sort  of  thing  was  what 
Edward  Judson  believed  that  Christianity  stands  for  as 
well  as  for  remedial  and  constructive  work.  Many  years 
before  there  was  a  municipal  wood-yard  or  lodging-house, 
wood  was  stored  in  the  cellar  of  the  Berean  Church  to 
be  cut  into  kindling  by  the  men  and  sold  by  the  women. 
!A  lodging-house  for  men  was  also  maintained.  In  this 
way  the  church  enabled  the  very  poor  to  keep  soul  and 
body  together,  while  a  margin  of  time  was  left  them  for 
seeking  regular  employment.  "  It  often  happens,"  he 
says,  "that  if  you  undertake  to  help  a  person  the  relief 
hurts  his  self-respect;  sometimes  it  so  impairs  his  inde- 
pendence that  he  just  settles  right  down  on  you.  In 
philanthropic  work  there  is  a  kind  of  undertow;  there 
is  always  some  evil  mixed  up  with  the  good  you  do. 
The  soul  naturally  looks  for  gratitude,  and  yet  there  is 
a  conspicuous  absence  of  any  such  response."  With  char- 
acteristic irony  he  quotes  Lord  Macaulay  as  saying  on 
his  death-bed  that  he  did  not  have  any  enemy  except 
those  whom  he  had  befriended.  The  following  letter 
has  interest  in  this  connection.  The  writer  did  not  have 
the  moral  courage  to  sign  it : 

My  dear  Sir  :  I  have  intended  writing  you  for  some  time  past. 
I  noticed  your  drinking-water  at  the  corner  was  turned  oflf 
last  fall. 


A   SOCIAL   PIONEER  lOI 

I  suppose  you  expect  people  to  drink  that  water  in  the  sum- 
mer, and  when  it  is  turned  off  to  drink  beer,  whisky,  etc. 

Is  that  your  religion? 

Why  not  let  it  run  at  one  faucet  the  year  round  ?  It  certainly 
would  not  cost  anything  to  keep  it  cold  in  the  wintertime,  when 
you  have  heretofore  turned  it  off. 

Trusting  you  will  give  this  consideration,  I  am. 
Yours  truly, 

A  Christian  and  near-by  tenant. 

New  York  City,  March  14,  1903. 

This  letter  is  expressive  of  that  "  fatal  undertow  "  in 
charitable  work.  Society  is  like  Oliver  Twist  with  jaws 
ajar  for  "  more." 

At  that  time  he  regarded  the  sewing  schools  which  were 
conducted  by  the  church  as  a  form  of  "philanthropy," 
not  as  a  point  of  social  contact  as  it  is  now  conceived. 
He  says :  "  Poor  girls  meet  every  Saturday  and  learn  to 
sew ;  we  furnish  the  cloth,  and  every  child  has  the  privi- 
lege of  keeping  the  garments  which  she  makes." 

Doctor  Judson  maintained  a  coal-yard  for  a  time, 
where  coal  could  be  purchased  at  reasonable  rates.  One 
of  the  great  hardships  of  the  poor  is  the  exorbitant  prices 
they  must  pay  for  inferior  products.  In  that  day  when 
there  were  few  heated  tenements,  the  suffering  of  the 
poor  in  winter  was  cruel.  The  cost  of  the  buckets  of 
coal  became  almost  prohibitive.  That  was  before  the 
era  of  health  reform  in  matters  of  food.  Milk  was  com- 
monly sold  which  would  now  be  consigned  to  the  sewer. 
The  poor  were  the  most  ready  victims  of  this  rapacity. 
For  this  reason  milk  was  sold  by  the  Berean  Church  in 
sealed  jars  at  seven  cents  a  quart.  Announcement  was 
made  that  if  any  profit  should  be  derived  from  the  sale, 
it  would  be  used  in  establishing  a  free  reading-room  or 
library,  or  for  other  philanthropic  purposes.  The  prac- 
tical difficulties  were  so  great  that  the  milk-depot  was 
soon  abandoned. 


102  EDWARD  JUDSON,   INTERPREtER  OF   GOD 

Doctor  Judson  always  had  sympathy  for  gentle  folks 
who,  because  of  circumstances  beyond  their  control,  were 
reduced  to  want. 

Too  often  he  employed  people,  not  because  of  what 
they  could  do,  but  because  of  what  they  needed.  Not  a 
few  ministers  received  temporary  appointments  for  work 
at  the  Memorial  Church  on  this  basis.  Indeed,  it  was  one 
of  Doctor  Judson's  dreams  to  establish  what  he  called  a 
ministerial  wood-yard  for  employing  ministers  who  might 
be  able  to  do  some  good,  and  yet  whose  efficiency  would 
not  justify  compensation  on  a  quid  pro  quo  basis. 

During  the  early  years  Doctor  Judson  thought  of 
church  institutionalism  primarily  as  a  form  of  philan- 
thropy. He  would  have  each  church  encircled  by  a  "  con- 
geries of  institutions  "  ministering  to  the  ignorant  and 
suffering.  We  shall  find  in  the  next  chapter  that  while 
appreciating  the  changing  conception  of  the  institutional 
church,  he  had  the  earlier  conception  more  deeply  em- 
bedded in  his  consciousness. 

That  Edward  Judson's  work  stood  for  the  helpful  con- 
tact of  strong  personalities  with  needy  lives,  and  not  for 
mere  institutionalized  religion,  is  evidenced  by  this  ad- 
mirable sketch  on  "  Pastoral  Visitation,"  drawn  by  the 
Rev.  James  M.  Bruce,  long  Doctor  Judson's  associate, 
and  to  this  day  a  member  of  the  Memorial  Church  and 
an  intelligent  supporter  of  its  work  and  ideals. 

/  The  parish  of  a  down-town  church  has  no  geographical  limita- 
tions, and  my  day  begins  rather  off  my  beat,  with  a  morning 
visit  in  one  o£  the  west  "  forties."  A  young  working  girl, 
known  in  our  church  from  childhood,  had  fallen  suddenly  ill. 
The  home  in  which  I  seek  her  is  a  ground-floor  flat.  Its  entire 
front  is  a  shop,  or,  more  accurately,  two  shops,  with  a  slit  of 
a  door  for  each.  One  is  a  candy  shop ;  the  other  is  a  grocery. 
"  Come  in  ze  kitchen,  come  in  ze  kitchen ;  I  guess  zat's  'e  bes' 
room  we  got  in  ze  house."  The  only  window  opens  on  an 
airshaft,  which  the  boldest  imagination  could  not  glorify  into 


A   SOCIAL   nONEER  I03 

a  court.  Her  mother  explains,  mostly  in  French,  that  Marguerite 
"  overlifted  "  herself  at  the  factory,  and  tlie  consequence  was  a 
hemorrhage,  which  nearly  cost  her  her  life.  The  wan,  limp  girl 
in  the  comer  feebly  protests  that  she  will  soon  be  all  right. 

Madam  begs  me  to  take  some  coffee.  Looking  at  the  bowl 
of  inky  fluid,  I  am  inclined  to  agree  with  my  austere  clerical 
friend,  who  insists  that  the  "  black  drinks,"  tea  and  coffee,  must 
be  included  in  any  total  abstinence  that  deserves  the  name. 

To  talk  and  pray  with  this  honest,  rough  woman  and  her 
finer-grained  daughter  was  a  pleasant  service.  But  my  task 
became  exigent  and  critical  when  I  attempted  to  recommend  a 
new  plan  for  the  young  girl  to  tlie  approval  of  her  father.  He 
was  German  Swiss,  a  Romanist,  a  habitual  beer-guzzler,  and  in 
general  a  grumpy  fellow.  My  scheme  would  cut  off  Marguerite's 
paltry  earnings  at  the  factory,  although  it  meant  improved  health 
for  her,  and  eventually  assured  self-support  by  an  art  she  loved. 

But  now  I  am  almost  due  in  Charlton  Street  for  a  baby's 
funeral.  Through  a  stone-paved  hall  and  up  a  staircase  made 
even  more  crooked  by  dilapidation  than  by  its  eccentric  design, 
I  grope  my  way  to  the  third-floor  room,  with  adjacent  sleeping 
closet,  where  the  family  of  four  sun-iving  children  and  father 
and  mother  have  what  it  would  be  cruel  irony  to  call  their  home. 

The  mother  is  combing  her  hair  at  one  of  the  windows  in 
preparation  for  the  funeral  ceremony.  As  I  enter  she  hastily 
thrusts  under  the  stove  a  can  of  tea,  as  she  insistently  explains, 
to  keep  it  warm.  I  notice  that  the  "tea"  is  covered  with  a 
whitish  froth. 

The  whole  scene  gains  an  added  touch  of  vulgarity  from  the 
frowsy  fineries  of  the  eldest  daughter  of  the  house,  who  has 
recently  married  a  cartman,  and  has  come  in  her  nuptial  be- 
deckments  to  assist  at  the  obsequies.  She  stands  beside  the 
humble  bier,  and  howls  at  intervals  with  a  perfectly  artificial 
display  of  what  she  deems  appropriate  grief.  Presently  her 
blear-eyed  boy  of  a  husband  appears,  unwashed  and  in  his  shirt 
sleeves.  I  have  been  looking  around  for  the  father,  and  before 
beginning  the  servace  ask  where  he  is.  "  In  the  bedroom  resting 
after  being  up  so  much  w-ith  the  baby."  As  the  baby  died  two 
days  ago,  and  was  only  sick  a  few  hours,  this  extreme  paternal 
fatigue  seems  hardly  warranted  by  the  circumstances.  I  have  al- 
ready heard  heavy  snoring  through  the  windowless  hole  which  sup- 
plies the  sleeping  closet  with  such  air  as  it  gets.  Stepping  inside 
the  doorway,  I  discover,  as  I  expected,  the  head  of  the  family 

H 


I04  EDWARD   JUDSON,    INTERPRETER   OF   GOD 

in  a  drunken  stupor  on  the  loathly  bed.  Any  effort  to  arouse  him 
would  be  hopeless,  and  I  go  through  the  sad  office  of  burial  to 
the  accompaniment  of  his  stertorous  respiration.  As  the  under- 
taker's bill  had  to  be  paid  for  these  not  vei-y  reputable  parish- 
ioners out  of  the  church's  overdrawn  benevolent  fund,  it  was 
necessary  to  reduce  the  funeral  cortege  to  a  single  coach,  in 
which  the  coffin  and  mourners  must  go  together.  I  left  the  af- 
flicted family  wrangling  fiercely  over  the  limited  number  of  places 
for  the  coveted  ride  to  the  cemetery. 

My  next  duty  is  to  search  out,  in  a  dank  cellar  of  the  City 
Hall,  a  pension  agent  to  whom  I  have  been  referred  on  behalf 
of  another  of  our  beneficiaries.  I  don't  quite  relish  ranging 
myself,  even  by  proxy,  with  the  horde  of  applicants  who  are 
so  rapidly  depleting  the  national  treasury. 

The  pension  agent,  an  expansive  and  unctuous  person,  assured 
me  that  my  case  could  be  in  no  better  hands  than  his,  but  failed 
to  tell  me  when,  if  at  all,  it  was  likely  to  be  acted  on. 

I  had  an  errand  in  Ludlow  Street,  not  far  from  Canal,  and 
as  I  passed  through  the  latter  thoroughfare  my  attention  was 
arrested  by  a  spectacle  in  striking  contrast  with  the  Charlton 
Street  function  I  have  described.  This  too  was  a  baby's  funeral, 
but  on  a  scale  of  magnificence  unprecedented  in  my  mortuary 
experiences.  A  brass  band  of  twelve  pieces,  in  a  state  of  sonorous 
activity,  was  just  emerging  from  the  kaleidoscopic  Neapolitan 
vista  of  Mulberry  Street. 

Soon  after  Doctor  Jiidson  began  his  work,  the  French 
mission,  referred  to  above,  came  under  the  care  of  the 
Berean  Church — one  of  the  first  instances  in  New  York 
City  of  an  individual  church  conducting  religious  services 
regularly  in  two  languages.  At  that  time  the  French  were 
the  leading  foreign  people  in  the  neighborhood  of  the 
Berean  Church.  Finally,  when  the  Italians  came  to  take 
the  places  of  the  French,  the  French  mission  gave  way 
to  an  Italian  mission.  At  the  writing  an  Italian  mission 
and  a  church  for  the  Letts  are  housed  in  the  Judson 
Memorial. 

Doctor  Judson's  experience  convinced  him  of  two 
things,  first  that  he  was  making  a  right  approach  to  a 
perplexing  problem,  and  secondly,  that  he  needed  better 


A   SOCIAL   PIOXEEk  IO5 

equipment.     Back  of  this  was  a  great  desire  fittingly  to 
memorialize  the  life  of  his  father. 

As  early  as  1886  Edward  Judson  proposed  to  erect  in 
New  York  City  a  monument  to  his  father,  Adoniram 
Judson.  He  hoped  to  complete  and  dedicate  it  on  August 
9,  1888,  the  one  hundredth  anniversary  of  his  father's 
birth.    In  1888  he  said: 

My  purpose  is  to  erect  a  building  which  will  not  only  pre- 
serve in  beautiful  and  pemianent  form  the  memories  of  our 
early  missionary  history,  but  will  also  help  to  solve  the  pressing 
and  difficult  problem  of  what  to  do  with  the  masses  of  people 
who  are  filling  up  the  lower  parts  of  our  great  cities,  controlling 
our  municipal  institutions,  and  through  the  cities  are  determining 
the  character  of  our  country  at  large. 

For  seven  years  I  have  been  in  mission  labor  as  pastor  of 
the  Berean  Baptist  Church  in  lower  New  York,  beginning 
with  almost  nothing,  and  making  use  of  a  plain  building 
situated  at  a  very  obscure  corner.  In  spite  of  the  great  inflow 
of  unevangelical  population  and  the  strong,  constant  drift  of 
our  members  to  more  comfortable  and  respectable  localities, 
we  have  had  a  steady  and  vigorous  growth.  Over  six  hundred 
persons  have  been  baptized. 

His  marked  success,  with  poor  equipment  and  limited  re- 
sources, might  well  have  led  him  to  this  conclusion : 

I  think  I  have  got  hold  of  the  right  end  of  the  tangled  skein 
of  that  problem  which  burdens  the  minds  of  all  thoughtful 
Christians,  namelj-,  the  relation  of  the  church  to  the  masses 
of  people  which  are  filling  in  the  lower  portions  of  our  great 
cities,  and  determining  the  character  of  our  social  and  municipal 
life. 

That  others  shared  his  feeling  is  evidenced  by  this  tribute 
from  the  New  York  "  Observer  " : 

It  would  be  difficult  to  find  a  church,  large  or  small,  rich 
or  poor,  in  New  York  or  out  of  it,  so  thoroughly  utilizing  every 
portion  of  its  strength  as  the  Berean  Baptist  Church.  For  a 
truly  evangelistic  spirit,  and  practical  philanthropy,  it  may  well 
be  regarded  as  a  model. 


I06  EDWARD   JUDSON,    INTERPRETER   OF   GOD 

Doctor  Judson's  twofold  purpose,  to  establish  a  memo- 
rial to  his  father  and  to  meet  the  needs  of  a  down- 
town field,  met  with  immediate  approval.  The  Chicago 
"  Standard  "  said  at  that  time : 

We  look  upon  Doctor  Judson's  enterprise  as  one  having  a 
national  significance.  The  memorial  of  a  missionary  becomes 
what  it  should  be,  a  lesson  and  example  to  us  all. 

Again,    regarding   the   missionary   enterprise,   the    same 
paper  said : 

Doctor  Judson  represents  an  idea  which  is  as  much  a  dis- 
tinctive one  in  practical  Christianity,  and  as  hopeful  of  a  new 
era  in  Christian  enterprise  and  service,  as  w-as  that  of  his  father. 
In  several  of  the  large  cities  of  the  country,  Chicago  included, 
that  kind  of  gospel  for  the  poor  which  Doctor  Judson  so  ably 
advocates,  is  just  now  engaging  attention,  while  some  by  means 
of  it  are  stirred  to  new  activities.  We  are  confident  that  Doctor 
Judson's  visit  to  the  West,  and  his  stirring  appeal  in  this  behalf, 
will  give  a  powerful  and  long-lasting  impulse  to  this  much- 
needed  work  in  behalf  of  the  neglected  populations  of  cities, 
large  and  small. 

In  1888,  the  site  on  Washington  Square  at  the  foot  of 
Fifth  Avenue  was  selected;  the  corner-stone  of  the  Jud- 
son Memorial,  one  of  the  first  institutional  church  build- 
ings, was  laid  on  the  thirtieth  of  June  of  the  same  year; 
on  February  i,  1890,  the  last  service  in  the  old  church 
was  held,  after  which  services  were  held  in  the  Memorial 
Hall  of  the  new  building.  In  May,  1892,  the  main  audi- 
torium was  first  used.  The  dedication  was  fittingly 
observed  during  the  week  of  January  22,  1893.  The  first 
of  the  dedicatory  sermons  was  preached  by  Doctor  Judson 
on  the  text,  "  Hitherto  hath  the  Lord  helped  us  "  (i  Sam. 
7  :  12).  He  gave  this  interesting  history  of  Washington 
Square : 

In  1797  the  city  purchased  ninety  lots  on  Sandy  Hill  to  be 
used  as  a  potter's  field.     This  patch  of  ground,  in  which  for  a 


A    SOCIAL   PIONEER  IO7 

long  time  paupers  were  buried,  became  afterward  Washington 
Parade  Ground  and  more  recently  Washington  Square.  It  con- 
tains eight  acres;  Central  Park,  eight  hundred;  Fifth  Avenue 
extends  from  one  to  the  other. 

In  this  sermon  he  referred  to  the  favorable  location  for 
bringing  the  rich  and  the  poor  together.  He  spoke  of  the 
distinctly  memorial  character  of  the  building  itself — a 
memorial  to  Adoniram  Judson ;  the  Children's  Memorial 
Home,  a  memorial  to  Hiram  Beats ;  the  organ,  a  memorial 
to  I\Irs.  Havemeyer.  Others  were  memorialized  in  the  ex- 
ciuisite  windows  designed  by  La  Farge,  and  yet  others  by 
tablets.  He  characterized  the  building  as  a  memorial  to 
Adoniram  Judson;  as  a  place  of  worship;  as  a  mis- 
sionary institution  standing  against  the  up-town  trend 
of  churches;  as  a  workshop  for  Christian  work,  educa- 
tional, social,  philanthropic;  and  as  embodying  wise  en- 
dowment features,  through  the  revenue-bearing  portion 
of  the  property. 

Some  of  the  notable  speakers  of  the  week  were  the 
Rev.  Henry  C.  Mabie,  D.  D. ;  Rev.  Lyman  Abbott,  D.  D., 
who  spoke  on  "  The  Life  More  Abundant " ;  and  the  Rev. 
Charles  H.  Parkhurst,  D.  D.  The  wide  outlook  of  the 
church  and  its  standing  is  indicated  by  the  citizens'  meet- 
ing on  Thursday  evening,  when  the  problem  of  sickness 
was  discussed  by  Dr.  George  F.  Baker,  pastor  and  super- 
intendent of  St.  Luke's  Hospital;  the  problem  of  igno- 
rance, by  President  Seth  Low,  at  the  time  president  of 
Columbia  University,  later  mayor.  The  problem  of  social 
alienation  was  to  have  been  discussed  by  the  Right  Rev. 
Henry  C.  Potter,  but  Bishop  Potter  was  detained  through 
the  death  of  Phillips  Brooks,  and  sent  a  letter,  which 
was  reported  by  the  New  York  "  Examiner  "  as  "  full  of 
sympathy  with  the  Memorial  Church,  pastor  and  people ; 
a  more  brotherly  letter  it  would  be  difficult  to  conceive.'' 
Bishop  Potter's  place  was  taken  bv  ex-Mavor  Hewitt. 


I08  EDWARD   JUDSON,    INTERPRETER   OF   GOD 

The  series  of  dedication  services  was  closed  on  January 
twenty-ninth  by  the  formal  dedication  sermon  preached 
by  Rev.  George  Dana  Boardman,  D.  D.,  and  by  a  service 
of  consecration  in  the  evening  conducted  by  Edward 
Judson. 

The  dedication  program  announced  the  following  de- 
partments of  work  and  worship :  Sunday  School,  Church 
Choir,  Junior  Choir,  Young  People's  Society  of  Christian 
Endeavor,  Union  Choral  Class,  Nursery,  Kindergarten 
and  Primary  School,  Teachers'  Class  for  teaching  the 
International  Lessons,  Industrial  School  for  Girls,  Gym- 
nasium Class,  Memorial  Home  for  Children,  Tract  De- 
pository, Dressmaking  Establishment,  Ice-water  Foun- 
tains, Flower  Mission,  Fresh-air  Work,  Memorial  Young 
Men's  Class. 

The  Rev.  Frank  Mason  North,  of  the  Methodist 
Church,  an  authority  on  city  problems,  now  president 
of  the  Federal  Council  of  Churches,  paid  this  tribute  to 
the  wisdom  of  the  selection  of  the  Washington  Square 
site: 

The  site  for  the  Judson  Memorial  Baptist  Church  was  chosen 
with  much  deliberation  and  great  sagacity.  Whether  seen  in 
the  open  or  through  the  framework  of  the  memorial  arch,  near 
at  hand,  where  its  careful  workmanship  declares  itself  to  minute 
inspection,  or  afar,  where  the  architectural  lines  reveal  them- 
selves in  true  proportions  and  its  cross  of  light  gleams  above 
the  city's  darkness,  the  church  is  impressive  and  to  every  lover 
of  heroic  deeds  is  an  inspiration. 

The  large  auditorium,  simple  and  rich  in  its  adornment,  is 
reserved  for  worship.  Commodious  rooms  for  kindergarten, 
clubs,  gymnasium  classes,  library,  dispensary,  creche,  and  large 
assembly-rooms  for  Sunday  School  and  prayer  services  are  amply 
provided  and  conveniently  arranged.  A  temporary  home  for 
children  has  its  fitting  place  in  the  very  heart  of  the  building, 
and  on  the  western  section  of  the  property  arises  "  The  Judson," 
an  apartment-house  built  in  architectural  harmony  with  the  church 
and   under  wise  management,  yielding  ten   thousand   dollars   a 


JL'DSOX  MEMORIAL  CHURCH 

THROUGH     WASHINGTON     ARCH 


A    SOCIAL   PIONEER  IO9 

year,  not  for  the  ordinary  expenses  of  the  church,  but  as  an 
income  from  a  permanent  endowment  for  its  manifold  edu- 
cational, missionary,  and  philanthropic  work. 

This  was  Richard  Watson  Gilder's  tribute  to  Washing- 
ton Square  and  to  "  the  cross  of  light  that  looms  from  the 
sacred  tower  "  of  the  Judson  Memorial.  This  poem  was 
used  frequently  by  Doctor  Judson,  with  the  permission 
of  its  author : 

Washington  Square 

This  is  the  end  of  the  town  that  I  love  the  best. 

Oh,  lovely  the  hour  of  light  from  the  burning  west — 

Of  light  that  lingers  and  fades  in  the  shadowy  square 

Where  the  solemn  fountain  lifts  a  shaft  in  the  air 

To  catch  the  skyey  colors,  and  fling  them  down 

In  a  wild-wood  torrent  that  drowns  the  noise  of  the  town. 

And  lovely  the  hour  of  the  still  and  dreamy  night 

When,  lifted  against  the  blue,  stands  the  arch  of  white 

With  one  clear  planet  above,  and  the  sickle  moon. 

In  curve  reversed  from  the  arch's  marble  round. 

Silvers  the  sapphire  sky.    Now  soon.  Ah  soon, 

Shall  the  city  square  be  turned  to  holy  ground. 

Through  the  light  of  the  moon  and  the  stars  and  the  glowing 

flower — 
The  Cross  of  light — that  looms  from  the  sacred  tower. 


VI 


THE   SOCIAL    PROPHET 


Success  and  suffering  are  interrelated.  If  we  succeed  with- 
out suffering,  it  is  because  others  suffered  before  us ;  if  we 
suffer  without  succeeding,  it  is  in  order  that  others  may  suc- 
ceed after  us. — Edward  Judson. 

WHILE  some,  fired  by  a  social  passion,  became 
agitators,  lifting  their  voices  in  loud  protest; 
while  some  sought  by  their  pens  to  guide  the  social  im- 
pulses of  forward-looking  men ;  and  while  others  organ- 
ized charity  for  its  own  sweet  sake,  Edward  Judson 
sought  by  the  radiating  influence  of  a  sympathetic  life  and 
by  the  wise  organization  of  an  understanding  church, 
to  make  his  contribution  to  human  progress  and  to  pro- 
mote an  understanding  of  God. 

His  soul  had  been  cheered  by  his  sense  of  spiritual 
fellowship  with  those  like  his  father,  who  in  foreign 
fields  were  interpreters  of  God  by  word  and  by  deed; 
with  those  who  in  college  settlements  or  in  varied  philan- 
thropies of  the  great  cities,  were  expressing  their  love 
for  mankind;  and  especially  with  those  who  were  at- 
tempting through  the  church  to  promote  an  understand- 
ing between  men  who  had  not  learned  to  think  of,  nor 
to  feel  for,  each  other — these  interpreters  of  man  to  man 
and  of  God  to  man.  He  was  sustained  both  by  his  sense 
of  achievement  in  his  chosen  task  and  by  his  sense  of 
spiritual  fellowship  with  all  these  pioneers  of  progress. 

Those  early  years  in  lower  New  York  had  brought  that 
sense  of  exhilaration  that  comes  from  substantial  prog- 
ress. Though  filled  with  hardship  and  disappointments, 
they  had  been  free  from  bitterness.  As  a  social  prophet 
no 


THE   SOCIAL    PROPHET 


he  had  seen  needs  not  yet  felt  by  the  church,  and  in  the 
church  he  had  seen  latent  possibilities.  He  had  set  out 
to  meet  these  needs  and  to  realize  these  possibilities.  Be- 
cause he  was  a  prophet  with  a  vision  of  the  church's 
social  task,  which  the  church  as  a  whole  had  not  yet 
apprehended,  because  he  had  undertaken  to  embody  this 
ideal  in  definite  activities  which  had  not  received  the 
sanction  of  missionary  organizations  nor  the  support  of 
individuals,  he  w^as  destined  to  become  a  suffering  servant 
and  to  feel  the  poignant  sorrow  of  unrequited  effort. 

Jonah  found  it  difficult  to  yield  to  a  modification  of 
his  own  prophecy,  however  much  to  the  advantage  of 
Nineveh.  Edward  Judson  as  a  social  prophet  had  spoken 
to  the  church  before  the  awakened  social  conscience  had 
found  expression  in  ameliorative  effort.  He  w^ould  have 
that  expression  through  the  church.    He  said : 

There  could  hardly  be  devised  a  more  efficient  philanthropic 
appliance  for  ameliorating  the  misery  of  a  great  town  than  the 
network  of  churches  spread  through  its  congested  places,  pro- 
vided each  church  intelligently  and  profoundly  interests  itself 
m  the  cure  of  the  social  sores  constantly  exposed  to  its  pitying 
eye.—"  The  Church  in  Its  Social  Aspect,"  page  429. 

But  in  response  to  his  own  and  other  voices  men  of 
quick  sympathies  and  of  good  will  organized  philan- 
thropies, but  largely  outside  of  the  church,  though  they 
themselves  were  church-members. 

The  Charity  Organization  Society— a  kind  of  social 
banyan  tree— was  propagating  and  relating  a  thousand 
different  charities ;  social  settlements,  those  neighborhood 
social  touchstones,  had  come  into  being ;  the  municipality 
had  undertaken  to  relieve  distress,  to  restrain  the  vicious. 
to  remove  the  causes  of  poverty  and  disease,  to  treat  child 
life  in  its  physical  and  social,  as  well  as  in  its  intellectual 
aspect,  and  to  give  intellectual  advantages  to  backward 
people,  whether  foreign  or  American. 


112  EDWARD   JUDSON,    INTERPRETER   OF   GOD 

This  trend  in  philanthropic  and  charitable  work  away 
from  the  church  was  to  Edward  Judson  a  matter  of  deep 
concern.  Indeed,  it  was  one  of  his  great  disappointments. 
He  was  a  "  High-churchman  "  in  organization  of  charity. 
He  would  have  had  the  church  not  only  inspire  benevo- 
lence, but  directly  organize  it,  so  that  the  most  humble 
working  man  might  be  able  to  understand  the  sympathy 
of  the  Master.  While  he  deeply  regretted  that  the  chari- 
table and  social  activities  of  the  city  had  not  been  related 
more  closely  to  it,  he  cooperated  with  the  newer  agencies. 
Some  years  later  he  made  this  admirable  statement : 

The  longer  I  live  the  more  delight  I  take  in  cooperating  with 
everything  good  that  is  going  on  anywhere  near  me.  The 
church  assumes  its  highest  philanthropic  efficiency  by  taking 
the  humble  part  of  an  intermediary  between  the  individual  suf- 
ferer and  organized  relief.  On  the  one  hand,  you  have  mil- 
lions of  dollars  invested  in  charitable  institutions,  and,  on  the 
other,  iniclassified  misery  ignorant  of  the  provisions  made  for 
its  relief.  I  try  to  keep  myself  informed  regarding  all  the  en- 
dowed philanthropies  of  New  York,  and  when  an  applicant  for 
help  comes  to  me  at  my  office  hour,  I  at  once  ask  myself  the 
question  whether  there  is  not  some  organized  form  of  relief 
that  can  grapple  this  particular  case  more  scientifically  and 
efficiently  than  I,  for  I  feel  that  the  little  temporary  help  that  I 
am  able  to  bestow  is  a  small  matter  compared  with  my  bring- 
ing the  sufferer  within  reach  of  some  organized  rehef  of  the 
very  existence  of  which  he  was  ignorant. — "  Homiletic  Review," 
August,  1909,  pp.  94,  95. 

Now  that  the  philanthropies  of  the  city  had  become 
organized,  the  church  did  not  need  to  do  what  it  had 
done  in  1881.  The  Charity  Organization  had  established 
a  wood-yard;  the  city  had  its  municipal  lodging-house; 
hospitals  had  established  dispensaries ;  the  city,  through 
the  Department  of  Education,  was  supporting  kinder- 
gartens. Almost  every  ache  or  pain  to  which  humanity 
is  heir  had  found  its  correlative  in  an  institution,  a  so- 
ciety, or  a  committee.    He  felt  it  the  duty  of  the  church 


THE   SOCIAL    PROPHET  II3 

to  study  the  social  need  and  "  to  feci  its  way  like  a  ferry- 
boat entering  inte  a  slip,"  to  find  new  opportunities  rather 
than  to  duplicate  the  work  of  other  institutions.  "  Imita- 
tiveness  is  the  besetting  sin  of  social  workers,"  he  said. 
He  would  not  have  that  sin  laid  to  his  charge. 

He  had  not  failed  to  recognize  "  the  fatal  undertow  " 
of  philanthropy  when  conducted  in  connection  with  a 
church.  He  felt  the  disparity  between  such  efforts  and 
the  spiritual  results.  He  saw  that  the  applicant  for 
charity  would  almost  certainly  be  aggrieved  and  the 
church  disappointed  if  direct  spiritual  results  were  the 
chief  consideration.    He  said : 

No  church  that  hoists  the  flag  of  relief  has  resources  ade- 
quate to  the  clamorous  requirements  of  poverty  in  a  great  town, 
hence  bitter  disappointment  ensues.  The  applicants  for  relief 
feel  that  somehow  they  have  been  deceived.  They  have  asked 
for  bread  and  have  been  given  a  stone.  .  . 

The  minister  who  engages  in  social  work  in  order  to  build 
up  his  own  church  is  doomed  to  disappointment.  The  last 
church  which  a  person  desires  to  attend  is  the  one  where  he 
sought  relief  and  received  it.  We  do  not  like  to  revisit  scenes 
of  past  misery.  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  institutionalism 
is  a  handicap  to  church  progress.  We  are  to  bend  with  tender- 
ness over  social  sores,  even  when  we  know  that  such  occupation 
may,  in  the  immediate  future,  impede,  rather  than  promote,  the 
growth  of  our  church.  .  . 

Our  kindness  to  the  people  in  tlie  nature  of  the  case  inclines 
them  to  be  hospitable  to  the  spiritual  message  which  we  desire 
to  impart.  But  if  we  are  kind  with  such  an  end  consciously 
in  view,  then  the  quality  of  our  kindness  is  vitiated.  We  must 
be  kind  for  its  own  sweet  sake  without  any  ulterior  considera- 
tion, or  else  our  kindness  loses  its  essential  character.  Your 
church  institutionalism  must  not  mean  being  kind  to  people 
Avith  a  view  to  getting  them  to  join  your  church.  Are  you 
kind  to  a  horse  in  order  to  get  him  to  join  your  church? — "The 
Church  in  Its  Social  Aspect,"  pp.  438,  439. 

Doctor  Judson  felt  that  there  still  remained  much 
work  for  the  institutional  church  to  do  outside  of  its 


114  EDWARD   JUDSON,    INTERPRETER   OF   GOD 

earlier  philanthropic  activities.     He  helped  to  define  the 
newer  social  task  of  the  church : 

So  far  as  our  work  is  concerned,  we  have  religious  services 
on  Sunday  and  every  week-night  (including  Saturday)  summer 
and  winter,  and  parallel  with  these  religious  services  there  is 
something  going  on  every  night  in  the  way  of  physical,  mental, 
and  social  self-improvement,  as  gymnastic  classes  for  women 
and  girls,  gymnastic  classes  for  men,  gymnastic  classes  and  clubs 
for  boys,  singing  classes,  sewing  schools,  children's  hour  with 
stereopticon  and  moving  pictures,  men's  tea  on  Sunday  night, 
young  people's  literary  society,  kindergartens,  etc.  These  forms 
of  social  work  we  have  gradually  adopted  as  meeting  urgent 
needs  in  our  own  individual  field. — "  Homilctic  Revieiv,"  1909. 

The  church  itself  should  become  socialized  as  a  means 
to  spiritual  efficiency. 

Take  a  single  narrow  case;  an  average  New  York  boy  comes 
to  Sunday  School  once  a  week,  and  presumably  receives  a  certain 
impression  upon  the  religious  side  of  his  nature.  Between  the 
Sundays  those  impressions  are  washed  away  from  his  mind  by  the 
influences  of  home  and  street  and  school,  and  at  the  end  of  a  long 
course  through  all  the  grades  of  the  Sunday  School,  when  the 
proper  age  comes  for  bidding  good-bye  to  it,  as  to  the  day-school, 
his  character  is  the  same  as  at  the  beginning.  The  Sundays  are 
too  far  apart  efficiently  and  permanently  to  mold  the  child's  char- 
acter. But  suppose  every  week  you  touch  the  same  boy  not 
only  on  a  religious  side  in  an  effective  way  at  the  Sunday  School, 
but  often  and  regularly  between  the  Sundays  you  reach  him 
along  physical,  mental,  and  social  lines  by  means  of  a  children's 
hour,  boys'  clubs,  gymnastic  classes,  and  other  recreative  func- 
tions; his  cynicism  is  gradually  subdued,  he  comes  to  love  and 
respect  you,  he  feels  that  he  has  found  a  friend  in  you,  new 
ideals  spring  up  in  his  mind,  and  you  are  encouraged  by  seeing 
his  whole  spirit  softened  and  conciliated. — "  The  Church  in  Its 
Social  Aspect,"  page  437. 

In  a  personal  letter  about  a  month  before  he  died  he 
said :  "  What  we  want  to  keep  in  mind  is  the  socialization 
of  the  Sunday  School,  by  which  I  mean  the  shoring  up 
of  each  department  by  some  weekly  social  function." 
In  a  still  later  letter  he  said :  "  I  see  how  important  all 


THE   SOCIAL   PROPHET  Il5 

this  social  work  is  as  it  brings  the  young  people  within 
our  spiritual  inliuencc." 

In  Doctor  Judson's  own  writings,  then,  there  are 
delineated  the  two  fairly  distinct  conceptions  of  church 
institutionalism ;  on  the  one  hand,  the  church  as  a  con- 
geries of  philanthropic  institutions  dealing  with  men  pri- 
marily on  the  physical  and  social  sides ;  on  the  other  hand, 
the  socialized  church  which  multiplies  points  of  contact, 
in  the  faith  that  there  is  a  contagion  of  godliness.  While 
Doctor  Judson  saw  this,  he  did  not  entirely  pass  from 
one  stage  of  this  development  into  the  other.  In  his 
discussion  of  "  The  Church  in  Its  Social  Aspect,"  he 
gives  this  striking  illustration  which  is  as  much  in  line 
with  his  earlier  views  as  with  his  later  conceptions,  and 
does  not  as  clearly  state  the  social  tasks  of  the  church  as 
the  quotation  above : 

The  social  forms  through  which  the  church  expresses  its 
sympath}'  and  compassion  are  Hke  the  soft  tentacles  which 
some  creature  of  the  sea  stretches  out  on  every  side  in  order 
to  explore  the  dim  element  in  which  it  swims,  and  to  draw  within 
itself  its  proper  food.  The  church  needs  just  such  organs  of 
prehension  with  which  to  lay  hold  upon  the  community  about  it. 
The  institutional  church  is  a  kind  of  tentacular  Christianity. — 
"  The  Church  in  Its  Social  Aspect,"  page  430. 

In  SO  often  reverting  to  his  earlier  thought  of  the 
church  as  a  congeries  of  philanthropies  and  in  appraising 
his  work  from  this  view-point  he  was  always  disap- 
pointed, not  to  be  able,  on  the  one  hand,  to  measure 
up  to  the  demands  of  the  poor,  and,  on  the  other  hand, 
to  secure  adequate  spiritual  returns.  His  own  prophecy 
of  word  and  deed  prepared  the  way  for  the  later  develop- 
ment, though  it  was  not  in  direct  fulfilment  of  his 
prophecy,  and  was  indeed  a  divergence  which  caused 
him  pain.  Unquestionably  the  organization  of  charitable 
work  is   promoted   by   centralization;   it   is   both   more 


Il6  EDWARD   JUDSON,    INTERPRETER   OF   GOD 

scientifically  efficient  and  perhaps  more  economical 
(though  it  has  to  build  new  plants  while  the  churches  are 
too  much  idle).  On  the  other  hand,  there  are  serious 
losses.  No  agency  can  soften  the  hand  of  charity  like 
the  church.  The  suffering  poor  have  no  such  aversion  to 
the  church  as  to  a  hospital  or  to  a  dispensary  which  they 
fear  as  they  do  the  morgue  or  the  potters'  field.  "  Charity 
which  suffereth  long,  and  is  kind,"  when  organized  needs 
to  be  translated  into  "  love,"  for  no  poor  person  who  is 
the  recipient  of  charity  ever  thinks  of  it  as  either  long- 
suffering  or  kind.  Besides,  charity  that  does  not  kindle 
to  new  endeavor  deadens  the  moral  sensibilities.  It  is 
at  this  point  that  the  church  is  best  prepared  to  serve. 
The  therapeutic  value  of  charity  is  apt  to  be  negligible. 
Moreover,  by  surrendering  its  great  opportunity  to  alle- 
viate suft'ering  the  Church  has  eliminated  another  point 
of  contact  with  those  classes  from  which  it  has  become 
estranged,  just  as  it  forfeited  a  great  opportunity  when 
one  hundred  years  ago  it  surrendered  to  the  State  the 
schools  which  it  had  built  up.  When  the  State  has  be- 
come more  democratic  and  the  democracy  more  Chris- 
tian, the  isolation  of  the  Church  from  the  masses  now 
intensified  by  such  social  changes  will  not  be  so  marked. 

It  is  not  often  that  a  financial  struggle,  even  to  estab- 
lish a  great  cause,  has  general  or  permanent  interest; 
but  in  Edward  Judson's  effort  through  long  years  to  build, 
to  develop,  and  to  preserve  the  Judson  Memorial  there 
was  so  much  of  voluntary  sacrifice,  and  such  a  play  of 
feeling,  flashing  up  like  heat-lightning  on  a  summer's 
night,  that  the  whole  struggle  took  on  a  romantic  aspect, 
and  elicits  interest  something  like  Saint  George's  fight 
with  the  dragon.  Moreover,  the  shaping  of  his  character 
through  struggle  and  suffering,  and  his  failure  to  realize 
his  social  ideals  cannot  be  understood  without  some  ap- 
preciation of  this  stress.    It  was  a  favorite  expression  of 


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THE  SOCIAL   I'RurilET 


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his,  that  "  Too  much  finance  asphyxiates  the  soul."  It 
never  asphyxiated  his  soul,  but  it  did  interfere  with  the 
soul  of  his  church  coming  to  its  fullest  expression. 

The  appeal  for  funds  to  build  the  Judson  Memorial 
was  sent  broadcast  throughout  the  land.  Thousands  of 
Sunday  School  children  were  asked  to  give  ten  cents  each. 
Seven  hundred  and  sixty-nine  Christian  Karens  in  Burma 
contributed  in  token  of  "  their  unspeakable  obligation  to 
Adoniram  Judson  for  introducing  the  gospel "  into  their 
country  and  for  "  giving  them  the  Bible  in  the  language 
of  the  people." 

The  years  spent  in  raising  money  to  build  the  Memorial 
had  none  of  the  disappointments  of  the  effort  to  free 
the  church  from  debt  and  to  provide  means  for  its 
development.  No  sooner  was  the  church  dedicated  than 
the  struggle  began.  In  1891,  for  the  first  time  in  his 
ministry.  Doctor  Judson  was  compelled  to  make  an 
urgent  appeal  to  members  of  his  church  for  additional 
contributions,  for  "  in  passing  from  the  old  church  into 
the  new  the  expenses  have  necessarily  advanced  from 
$300  to  ?500  a  month."  Though  his  resources  were  too 
scanty  for  the  work  in  hand,  though  compelled  to  make 
wide-spread  appeals  for  his  philanthropic  and  missionary 
work,  it  was  not  until  he  had  raised  the  last  of  the  mort- 
gage indebtedness  of  the  church  ($150,000  in  1907)  that 
the  financial  burden  began  to  cut  most  deeply.  ]\Ir.  John 
D.  Rockefeller  contributed  $40,000,  and  the  balance  of 
$110,000  was  secured  largely  on  the  annuity  plan— the 
church  agreeing  to  pay  from  five  per  cent  to  seven  per 
cent  to  each  donor  for  moneys  "  contributed  "  so  long  as 
he  should  live,  and  in  many  cases  an  equal  or  a  smaller 
amount  to  a  second  annuitant.  Though  the  debt  was 
paid  the  annual  charges  were  increased.  Thinking  that 
the  debt  had  been  canceled,  some  outside  donors  reduced 
their  contributions.    In  1908  Doctor  Judson  wrote : 


Il8  EDWARD   JUDSON,    INTERPRETER   OF   GOD 

Yet  in  spite  of  my  best  wisdom  in  expenditures,  and  although, 
beginning  with  April,  I  have  cut  my  own  salary  $119.44  ^  month 
so  that  now  I  am  only  receiving  $200  per  month,  and  although 
I  have  besides  turned  into  our  treasury  $1,500  which  I  earned 
by  lecturing  at  Union  Seminary,  and  $1,333.33  paid  me  for 
professional  work  at  Hamilton,  and  have  besides  raised  all  I 
could  among  my  friends,  a  deficit  impends  which  is  costing  me 
very  great  effort  to  meet. 

He  attributed  this  financial  condition  in  part  to  the  re- 
moval of  a  large  part  of  his  church  constituency  and 
the  coming  in  their  place  of  Italians  and  other  foreigners, 
or  in  short  to  the  fact  that  the  field  had  assumed  a  more 
distinctly  missionary  aspect.  While  he  was  occupying 
the  chair  of  Homiletics  in  the  Chicago  Divinity  School, 
the  board  of  trustees  of  the  church  felt  compelled  to 
write  him  that  the  church  was  running  behind  at  the  rate 
of  $6,000  per  year,  and  that  he  alone  could  save  the 
situation.  He  returned  and  raised  the  money,  but  when 
the  property  was  turned  over  to  the  New  York  City 
Baptist  Mission  Society  in  1914  there  was  a  large  deficit, 
the  accumulation  of  years  of  struggle.  The  most  of  this 
deficit  he  was  carrying  at  the  time  of  his  death  by  his 
own  personal  notes,  discounted  at  a  bank.  These  notes 
had  to  be  renewed  from  time  to  time,  causing  no  little 
mental  discomfort. 

Few  men  have  had  the  art  of  making  such  financial 
appeals  as  did  he,  yet  the  necessity  that  lay  back  of  them 
is  pathetic.  Who  would  not  be  pleased  to  receive  such 
correspondence  as  this? 

Now  you  see  how  long  an  epistle  your  sympathy  has  evoked 
I  hope  you  will  forgive  me,  if  I  am  boring  you.  But  I  really 
needed  to  unburden  myself  of  this  "perilous  stuff"  that  has 
occupied  my  mind  too  long  and  too  exclusively  for  my  mental 
health  and  comfort,  and  if  it  does  you  no  harm,  you  have  greatly 
helped  me  in  letting  me  tell  you  about  this  rather  complicated 
situation.     I  know  that  you  and  your  dear  brother  have  too 


THE  SOCIAL   PROPHET  II9 

many  of  other  people's  financial  burdens  alreadj'  to  carry,  without 
putting  your  shoulders  to  my  chariot  wheels,  which  seem  to  be 
driven  "  heavily "  like  those  of  the  Egyptians  in  the  Red  Sea. 
But  jour  sympathy  and  counsel,  as  well  as  his,  are  inexpressibly 
prized  by  me,  and  while  I  see  no  way  in  which  you  can  lift  us 
out  of  our  perplexities,  it  has  already  done  me  a  lot  of  good 
to  write  you  this  letter,  and  it  will  make  me  very  grateful  to 
think  that  we  have  a  place  in  your  hearts. 

In  writing  this  particular  letter  he  made  this  inter- 
esting observation  on  the  reason  for  the  last  financial 
strain  which  resulted  in  the  transfer  of  the  property  to 
a  missionary  society : 

Mr.  Rockefeller  for  a  long  succession  of  years  contributed 
$3,000  a  year,  holding  on  so  long  that  I  wondered  he  didn't  get 
tired.  But  the  last  few  years  he  has  dropped  off  in  spite  of  my 
best  persuasions,  he  having  inexorably  committed  himself  to  the 
policy  of  helping  individuals  and  churches  only  through  recog- 
nized denominational  agencies.  I  have  reason  to  believe  that  he 
let  go  of  me  reluctantly,  and  that  I  was  the  last  of  the  Mohicans 
under  his  old  regime.  But  for  all  that  he  was  the  third  leg 
of  our  tripod,  and  from  the  time  that  he  ceased  to  support  we 
have  had  a  deficit  of  from  three  to  five  thousand  dollars  a  year, 
so  that  now  we  have  a  floating  debt  (if  it  only  would  float)  of 
nearly  $15,000. 

At  the  beginning  of  his  ministry  in  New  York  he 
depended  largely  on  the  benevolence  of  his  friend, 
Mr.  John  H.  Deane,  to  supplement  the  small  amount 
which  his  church  could  raise;  later  he  relied  upon  the 
equally  generous  support  of  Mr.  John  D.  Rockefeller. 

He  did  not  undergo  this  storm  and  stress  for  lack  of 
other  opportunities  which  would  have  brought  generous 
remuneration.  The  voluntary  element  in  his  sacrifice 
heightens  its  quality. 

He  had  a  deep  conviction  that  it  was  bad  economy  to 
center  religious  efifort  upon  the  more  favored  classes, 
neglecting  those  who  needed  the  church  most ;  that  it  was 
I 


I20  EDWARD   JUDSON,   INTERPRETER   OF   GOD 

Not  good  strategy  to  focus  the  heaviest  artillery  upon  the 
weakest  point  of  the  enemy's  Unes,  but  that  the  most  beautiful 
churches  should  be  placed  among  the  homes  of  the  poor,  so  that 
it  would  be  only  a  step  from  the  squalor  of  the  tenement-house 
into  a  new  and  contrasted  world. 

For  these  reasons  and  because  he  was  building  a  memorial 
to  stand,  not  for  a  generation,  but  for  centuries,  like 
some  noble  cathedral,  he  built  what  architects  have  called 
the  finest  piece  of  church  architecture  in  New  York  City. 
"  Did  you  not  know,"  said  a  prominent  New  York  artist  to 
the  writer,  "  that  the  Judson  Memorial  is  the  handiwork 
of  the  three  greatest  American  artists — Stanford  White, 
architect ;  St.  Gaudens,  sculptor ;  and  La  Farge,  who  de- 
signed the  windows  ?  "  It  is  more  than  a  memorial ;  it  is 
more  than  fine  architecture.  It  was  one  of  the  very 
first  churches  built  in  America  for  social  ministry.  It  is 
churchly,  built  for  worship;  institutional,  built  for  min- 
istry ;  revenue-bearing,  built  to  stay.  It  embodies  in 
itself  a  well-appointed  hotel  to  serve  as  a  limited  endow- 
ment for  the  philanthropic  and  missionary  work  of  the 
church — not  for  ordinary  current  expense — a  distinction 
which  Doctor  Judson  always  made. 

He  was  convinced  that  such  a  church  must  have  an  en- 
dowment or  its  work  would  be  insecure.  With  prophetic 
insight  he  was  building,  not  for  a  day,  but  for  genera- 
tions.   Fie  said : 

If  a  church  is  embedded  in  a  community  which  is  pre- 
dominantly Christian  in  its  spirit,  where  there  exists  an  under- 
lying consciousness  that  is  responsive  and  congenial  to  evan- 
gelical truth,  then  there  may  be  no  need  of  an  endowment. 
The  ordinary  appliances  of  religion — the  Sunday  preaching,  the 
Sunday  School,  and  the  midweek  service — may  suffice.  Enough 
decent  churchgoing  people  will  naturally  stream  in  to  meet  the 
expenses  of  the  establishment.  If,  however,  the  church  is  situated 
in  a  community  the  inner  consciousness  of  which  is  heathenish 
and  antagonistic  to  the  gospel,  there  will  spring  up  the  necessity 
of  an  endowment. 


THE    SOCIAL    PROPHET  121 

The  building  of  such  a  plant  for  social  and  reh'gious 
work  was  in  itself  a  big  undertaking.  The  cost  of  the 
land  and  buildings  at  the  time  of  the  dedication  was  ap- 
proximately $400,000,  of  which  $150,000  had  been  ex- 
pended on  the  hotel  portion  of  the  property — in  the  nature 
of  an  endowment.  This  expenditure  was  increased  later 
to  $573,305,  principally  in  the  enlargement  of  the  Judson 
Hotel,  the  erection  of  the  Children's  Home  at  Somer- 
ville.  New  Jersey,  the  purchase  and  improvement  of  the 
Judson  Hotel  Annex,  and  for  other  property  investment. 
Because  he  was  undertaking  a  type  of  work  which  had  not 
yet  approved  itself  to  any  considerable  body  of  churches 
or  number  of  individuals,  he  was  unable  to  raise  adequate 
funds  by  direct  gift.  Of  the  amount  expended  in  the 
property,  $358,858  vi^as  secured  on  the  annuity  plan,  in- 
volving very  heavy  annual  charges.  This  seemed  to  Doc- 
tor Judson  the  only  way  of  raising  so  large  a  sum. 

A  second  fundamental  difficulty  which  he  had  to  face 
was  that  he  was  appealing  for  current  funds  to  a  con- 
stituency which  had  not  yet  drawn  the  distinction 
between  a  church  which  is  embedded  in  a  community  pre- 
dominantly Protestant  and  a  church  located  in  a  com- 
munity that  is  "  heathenish  and  antagonistic  to  the  gos- 
pel." Christians  of  no  communion  had  come  to  recognize 
the  religiously  neglected  "  down-town  "  city  district  as  a 
challenge  to  the  church.  The  prevailing  unsympathetic 
attitude  is  rather  painfully  reflected  in  the  following 
letter  which  Doctor  Judson  received  from  the  pastor 
of  a  suburban  church  who,  in  his  cruel  frankness,  ex- 
pressed the  attitude  of  thousands  w^ho  withheld  their 
support : 

And  now  that  I  have  the  opportimit.v,  let  me  frankly  say 
what  some  of  my  people  have  urged  me  more  than  once  to  say 
and  what  others  feel.  Grand  as  is  the  work  of  the  Berean 
Church  in  New  York,  broad  as  its  scope,  and  beneficent  as  are  its 


122  EDWARD   JUDSON,    INTERPRETER   OF   GOD 

charities,  we  regard  the  enterprise  as  purely  local,  and  feel  that 
like  other  local  enterprises  it  ought  to  depend  for  support  upon 
its  own  field.  One  or  two  of  my  own  people  have  felt  slightly 
annoyed  by  appeals  for  your  general  work. 

As  a  pioneer  Doctor  Judson  had  gone  beyond  the  con- 
victions of  his  denomination  as  registered  in  the  policies 
of  its  missionary  societies,  for  such  an  organization  is 
inevitably  conservative,  being  responsive  to  the  convic- 
tions to  which  the  majority  of  the  supporting  churches 
have  been  brought,  unless  indeed  it  is  led  by  a  pioneer 
strong  enough  to  bring  the  denomination  to  his  support. 
Edward  Judson  attempted  to  raise  a  standard,  but  he 
had  to  raise  it  alone  with  only  an  occasional  Aaron  or 
Hur  to  stay  his  hands.  The  failure  of  the  denomination 
to  give  Doctor  Judson  adequate  assistance  in  his  severe 
struggles  did  not  deter  him  from  presenting  to  the  local 
denominational  organization,  the  New  York  City  Baptist 
Mission  Society,  the  accumulations  of  his  life  of  mission- 
ary effort,  embodied  in  the  Judson  Memorial  Church, 
hotel,  and  children's  home,  costing  $573,305,  valued  by 
him  at  v$750,ooo,  though  encumbered  at  the  time  of  the 
transfer  with  an  indebtedness  of  approximately  $167,000, 
He  often  said  that  the  life  of  an  institution  is  longer  than 
that  of  a  man.  For  this  reason  institutions  become  social 
conservators. 

It  was  not  until  the  ideals  for  which  he  had  striven 
had  percolated  into  the  consciousness  of  the  denomina- 
tion and  been  accepted  by  it,  that  it  became  possible  for 
his  church  to  receive  support  through  any  denominational 
organization.  That  day  did  not  come,  unfortunately,  until 
his  strength  had  broken.  He  had  hoped  to  receive  the 
personal  support  of  well-to-do  people  living  in  the  suburbs 
or  up-town,  but  was  largely  disappointed.  "  So  many 
have  left  my  side,"  he  said,  "  that  I  find  myself  when  I 
part  with  persons  in  the  street,  unconsciously  taking  a 


THE   SOCIAL    PROPHET  I2T, 

long  and  lingering  look  at  them  lest  I  should  not  see  them 
again." 

Moses  did  not  live  to  see  the  children  of  Israel  enter 
the  promised  land,  but  that  land  was  entered.  The  ex- 
periences in  the  wilderness  then  came  to  their  fruition. 
That  faith  which  Edward  Judson  had  in  the  ultimate 
triumph  of  the  good  and  to  a  hardly  less  degree  in  the 
institution  to  which  he  gave  the  best  years  of  his  life, 
has  come  into  fruitage  since  his  death  in  the  enlargement 
of  the  work  itself  along  the  lines  inaugurated  by  him 
and  in  the  preservation  of  the  property  of  the  Memorial 
Church.  As  these  pages  go  to  press  a  fund  of  $300,000  is 
being  raised  through  the  free-will  offerings  of  many  thou- 
sands in  nearly  every  State  in  the  Union  to  free  the 
church  from  debt — a  task  already  largely  accomplished — 
and  to  perpetuate  the  work  of  Edward  Judson.  Had  this 
popular  response  to  his  prophetic  call  come  a  score  of 
years  earlier,  his  life  might  have  been  spared  and  the 
ideals  for  which  he  struggled  have  found  an  earlier  and 
perhaps  a  larger  embodiment. 

These  words  of  Edward  Judson  are  prophetic  of  the 
triumph  of  the  ideals  for  which  he  stood.  In  the  lines 
of  Matthew  Arnold  he  foretold  his  own  martyrdom,  nor 
did  he  cease  to  charge  till  he  had  fallen  "  by  the  wall." 

When  the  glowing  lava  of  thought  has  once  grown  cold,  having 
crystallized  itself  into  mischievous  institutional  forms,  it  is  hard 
to  melt  it  all  over  again  and  start  anew.  That  is  why  a  single 
lifetime  is  usually  inadequate  to  the  task  of  carrying  through  a 
reform.  At  least  two  lifetimes  have  to  be  spliced  together.  As 
Matthew  Arnold  states  it: 

"Charge  once  more  then,  and  be  dumb; 
Let  the  victors  when  they  come, 
When  the  forts  of  folly  fall. 
Find  thy  body  by  the  wall." 


VII 

INTERPRETER   OF   GOD 

Religion  is  imparted  by  social  infection.  It  is  one  of  the 
secrets  in  that  change  of  mental  poise  which  has  been  fittingly 
named  conversion,  that  to  many  among  us  neither  heaven  nor 
earth  has  any  revelation  till  some  personality  touches  ours  with 
a  peculiar  influence  subduing  us  into  receptivity. — Edward  Judson. 

THESE  pages  have  been  devoted  mainly  to  a  portrayal 
of  Edward  Judson's  contribution  to  educational, 
social,  and  religious  progress  as  teacher,  writer,  pastor 
and  preacher,  and  social  pioneer  and  prophet. 

During  the  working  period  of  his  life,  a  span  of  almost 
fifty  years,  from  graduation  from  Brown  University  in 
1865  almost  to  the  day  of  his  death,  on  October  23,  1914, 
he  was  busily  employed  as  principal  of  the  Leland  Semi- 
nary at  Townshend,  Vermont,  from  1865  to  1866;  as  in- 
structor and  professor  at  Madison  (Colgate)  University, 
from  1866  to  1873 ;  as  pastor  of  the  North  Orange  Bap- 
tist Church,  from  1874  to  188 1 ;  as  pastor  of  the  Berean 
Baptist  Church  and  its  successor,  the  Memorial  Church, 
from  1881  to  the  time  of  his  death. 

The  last  year  of  his  life  was  marked  by  singular  provi- 
dences. "  One  of  the  pleasures  of  growing  old  is  that  we 
see  our  past  life  in  perspective.  We  become  aware 
that,  all  unconsciously  to  ourselves,  it  has  been  shaped  to- 
ward definite  ends  by  our  heavenly  Father's  molding 
hand,"  he  once  said. 

Nineteen  hundred  thirteen  was  the  centennial  year 
of  the  beginning  of  his  father's  mighty  achievement. 
He  joyously  participated  in  the  festivities.  His  presence 
124 


INTERPRETER   OF   GOD  1 25 

was  desired  at  the  centennial  celebration  in  Burma,  but 
the  conditions  of  his  health  forbade.  The  Rangoon 
"  Gazette,"  on  Friday,  December  12,  1913,  gave  this 
record  of  the  meeting  of  Wednesday  the  tenth: 

At  this  point  the  Rev.  W.  H.  S.  Hascall  read  a  cablegram 
\vhich  he  had  just  received  from  Dr.  Edward  Judson  in  New 
York,  the  youngest  son  of  Doctor  Judson,  sent  on  December 
tenth.  It  read,  "Centennial  greetings:  Revelation  11  :  15."  The 
reading  was  received  with  cheers.  The  chairman  then  read  the 
verse  referred  to  in  the  cable,  which  reads :  "  And  the  seventh 
angel  sounded;  and  there  were  great  voices  in  heaven  saying, 
The  kingdoms  of  this  world  are  become  the  kingdoms  of  our 
Lord  and  of  his  Christ ;  and  he  shall  reign  for  ever  and  ever." 

At  the  precise  hour  of  this  service  there  was  held  in 
the  Memorial  Church  in  New  York  City  a  service  of 
prayer  and  thanksgiving,  conducted  by  Edward  Judson. 
The  Rangoon  "  Gazette  "  records  that  on  Thursday  after- 
noon : 

Previous  to  his  address,  the  chairman  read  the  following 
drafted  reply  to  the  cablegram  received  from  Dr.  Edward  Judson 
on  Wednesday,  which  is  as  follows :  "  Dr.  Edward  Judson,  New 
York  City,  greeting :  3  John  2."  This  verse  reads :  "  Beloved,  I 
wish  above  all  things  that  thou  ma3'est  prosper  and  be  in  health, 
even  as  thy  soul  prospereth."  The  meeting  unanimously  approved 
of  the  sending  of  such  a  cablegram. 

Doctor  Judson  had  among  his  cherished  keepsakes  the 
original  of  this  cablegram.  There  was  also  pubHshed 
in  Rangoon  an  extended  letter  from  Doctor  Judson,  for 
as  Doctor  Hascall  wrote  on  December  13,  "  We  thought 
all  should  come  into  personal  touch  with  you  at  this 
time." 

The  friends  of  Edward  Judson  desired  an  opportunity 
to  break  the  alabaster  cruse  of  friendship  and  esteem. 
Under  the  leadership  of  the  Rev.  Cornelius  Woelfkin, 
D.  D.,  the  Rev.  J.  Madison  Hare,  and  others,  such  an 
opportunity  was  afiforded  to  a  host  of  his  friends.  It  took 


126  EDWARD   JUDSON,    INTERPRETER   OF   GOD 

the  form  of  a  dinner  held  at  Sherry's,  New  York,  Decem- 
ber i8,  1913.  The  Brooklyn  "  Daily  Eagle"  on  the  nine- 
teenth gave  this  report : 

Coincident  with  the  Judson  centenary  celebration  in  Burma, 
which  began  several  days  ago,  a  dinner  was  given  in  honor 
of  the  great  missionary,  Adoniram  Judson,  and  to  pay  homage 
to  his  son,  the  Rev.  Edward  Judson,  for  more  than  thirty  years 
a  prominent  pastor  in  Manhattan,  in  the  great  dining-hall  of 
Sherry's,  Fifth  Avenue  and  Forty-fourth  Street,  last  night. 
Brooklyn,  Manhattan,  the  neighboring  cities — Philadelphia,  Bos- 
ton, and  other  New  England  places — and  cities  far  away  were 
represented  in  the  diners,  ministers,  and  laymen  and  laywomen. 
Altogether,  five  hundred  sat  down. 

Every  mention  of  the  name  of  Judson  brought  forth  applause. 

Sitting  at  the  guest-table  were:  Bishop  David  H.  Greer,  rep- 
resenting the  Episcopal  denomination;  the  Rev.  Frank  Mason 
North,  secretary  of  the  Foreign  Mission  Society  of  the  Method- 
ist Episcopal  Church;  the  Rev.  Charles  E.  Jefferson,  pastor  of 
the  Broadway  Tabernacle,  representing  the  Congregationalists ; 
the  Rev.  U.  G.  Wenner,  representing  the  Lutherans;  Dr.  Robert 
E.  Speer,  one  of  the  secretaries  of  the  Foreign  Mission  Board 
of  the  Presbj'terian  Church ;  and  the  Rev.  Emory  W.  Hunt,  D.  D., 
secretary  of  the  American  Baptist  Foreign  Mission  Society. 

Doctor  Woelfkin  read  letters  from  Mr.  John  D.  Rockefeller, 
Supreme  Court  Justice  Hughes,  and  the  Rev.  W.  H.  P.  Faunce, 
D.  D.,  President  of  Brown  University. 

At  the  close  Doctor  Woelfkin  paid  a  tribute  to  Dr.  Adoniram 
Judson  and  to  his  distinguished  son,  and  presented  to  the  guest 
of  the  evening  a  purse  of  $1,000  in  gold.  Doctor  Judson  re- 
sponded briefly  and  feelingly  to  all  the  kind  words  said  about  his 
father  and  about  himself,  and  closed  the  dinner  with  prayer  and 
benediction,  the  large  company  joining  in  the  Lord's  Prayer. 

This  was  regarded  as  the  most  significant  social  event 
in  Baptist  circles  within  the  recollection  of  those  who 
attended.  That  this  tribute  of  affection  was  warmly 
appreciated  by  Doctor  Judson  was  shown  in  a  character- 
istic remark  after  the  dinner.  The  writer  expressed  the 
hope  that  the  evening  had  not  been  overtaxing.  He  re- 
plied, "  This  is  not  the  kind  of  thing  that  kills  men." 


IXTERrRETER   OF    GOD  12/ 

Unfortunately,  he  had  experienced  too  many  of  those 
things  which  do  kill  and  too  few  of  those  which  this 
dinner  supplied. 

The  following  evening  a  more  informal  service  was 
held  at  the  Memorial  Church,  when  his  friends  spoke 
without  restraint  of  their  love  and  appreciation.  At 
this  meeting,  on  motion  of  Air.  D.  G.  Garabrant,  of 
Bloomfield,  New  Jersey,  the  appointment  of  a  committee 
was  authorized  to  ascertain  what  could  be  done  to  relieve 
Doctor  Judson  of  the  financial  strain  which  was  shorten- 
ing his  life.  (Reference  has  already  been  made  to  the 
work  of  this  committee.) 

Following  the  celebration  in  Burma,  and  culminating 
in  the  centennial  in  Boston,  in  June,  1914,  scores  of  cen- 
tennial meetings  were  held,  at  which  Edward  Judson  gave 
notable  addresses  on  his  father's  life. 

The  culmination  of  the  Judson  Centennial  Celebration 
was  on  June  24  and  25,  in  connection  with  the  annual 
meetings  of  the  Northern  Baptist  Convention  held  in 
Boston.  On  Wednesday  afternoon,  the  twenty-fourth, 
the  important  session  was  held.  In  introducing  Doctor 
Judson,  President  Henry  Bond  said : 

We  love  him  for  what  the  name  stands  for  that  he  bears, 
we  love  him  for  the  blood  that  he  has  in  his  veins,  and  we  love 
him  for  what  he  is  himself — Dr.  Edward  Judson,  of  ISIew  York. 

In  the  official  report  is  this  record  of  the  "ovation  to 
Edward  Judson  " : 

This  was  the  signal  for  such  an  outburst  of  recognition  as 
is  seldom  witnessed  in  any  gathering.  The  supreme  moment  of 
the  celebration  had  come.  If  Edward  Judson  ever  doubted 
whether  the  denomination  appreciated  his  character  and  spirit, 
his  devotion  not  less  persistent  than  that  of  his  father  to  the 
cause  in  which  he  believed,  and  his  eminently  lovable  qualities, 
he  could  have  no  doubt  of  it  from  this  hour.  He  had  been 
greeted  with  great  applause  when  he  first  came  to  the  platform ; 


128  EDWARD   JUDSON,    INTERPRETER   OF   GOD 

but  now,  as  he  rose  and  stepped  to  the  side  of  the  president,  he 
received  an  ovation.  The  congregation  rose,  gave  him  the  Chau- 
tauqua salute,  cheered ;  then,  after  sitting  down,  broke  into  wave 
after  wave  of  applause,  so  that  all  he  could  do  was  to  stand 
there  and  smile  .  .  .  overcome  with  a  feeling  of  wonder  at  such 
a  tribute  ...  to  his  father,  of  whom  he  was  the  special  repre- 
sentative by  reason  of  his  calling  and  work.  How  simply  he 
began,  yet  how  characteristically,  when  the  people  gave  him  a 
chance  to  be  heard.  You  will  read  the  address  in  full  elsewhere, 
but  the  opening  words  may  well  be  given  here  also : 

"  President  Bond,  Brethren,  Sisters,  Fathers,  Mothers,  Young 
Men  and  Women  who  are  going  as  missionaries,  you  Veterans 
who  have  returned  from  distant  fields, 

" '  Hearts  worn  out  with  many  wars 

And  eyes  grown  dim  with  gazing  on  the  pilot  stars.' 

"  I  count  it  the  supreme  honor  and  joy  of  my  life  to  be  per- 
mitted to  speak  a  benedictory  word  on  this  historic  occasion 
under  the  auspices  of  the  Northern  Baptist  Convention  in  the 
presence  of  this  assemblage  of  representative  Christians  gathered 
from  all  sections  of  our  great  land  to  pay  a  tribute  of  affectionate 
remembrance  to  my  father,  Adoniram  Judson,  the  first  American 
foreign  missionary." 

When  Doctor  Judson  had  concluded,  the  audience  again 
expressed  its  appreciation  of  the  address  and  affection 
for  the  man.    When  a  pause  came,  President  Bond  said : 

Doctor  Judson,  would  that  I  could  give  you  some  adequate 
conception  of  the  appreciation  of  this  audience,  and  not  only  of 
this  audience,  but  of  the  Baptists  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific, 
of  the  lives  of  men  like  your  father  and  yourself.  But  until 
the  books  are  opened,  it  can  never  be  known,  and  when  the 
record  is  read  there,  then  can  be  understood,  and  not  until  then, 
our  appreciation  of  the  life  of  these  men. 

The  Rev.  Frank  M.  Goodchild,  D.  D.,  of  New  York, 
in  his  convention  address  said: 

The  only  celebration  of  the  Judsons'  doings  that  is  much 
worth  while  is  that  we  shall  resolve  to  finish  the  work  in  Burma 
which  they  so  heroically  began,  and  for  which  in  wearing  out 
their  lives  they  "gave  the  last  full  measure  of  devotion,"  and 


INTERPRETER   OF   GOD  I 29 

that  we  thus  determine  that  those  souls  "shall  not  have  died 
in  vain." 

And  we  might  well  supplement  that  by  resolving  before  God 
to  make  perpetual  in  lower  New  York  the  work  which  Dr. 
Edward  Judson  has  so  well  begun  as  a  memorial  to  his  father. 

At  these  meetings  Doctor  Judson  was  elected  Honorary 
President  for  life  of  the  American  Baptist  Foreign  Mis- 
sion Society.  Doctor  Judson's  friends  were  profoundly 
grateful  that  he  lived  to  receive  these  altogether  sincere 
and  thoroughly  deserved  tributes. 

Already  the  dark  shadows  were  beginning  to  settle. 
The  Northern  Baptist  Convention,  at  its  meeting  in  June, 
had  taken  cognizance  of  the  serious  illness  of  j\Irs.  Jud- 
son, and  had  sent  Doctor  Judson  a  note  of  sympathy. 
The  writer  chanced  to  be  at  Doctor  Judson's  Hamilton 
home  one  evening  in  IMay,  1914.  Returning  that  night 
from  a  trip  in  the  interest  of  his  work,  Doctor  Judson 
found  that  Mrs,  Judson  had  been  ordered  by  her  physi- 
cian to  New  York.  She  was  never  permitted  to  return. 
As  late  as  the  sixth  of  August  he  wrote  to  the  writer: 
"  Yes,  Mrs.  Judson  is  getting  along  a  little  better.  We 
still  hope  to  see  her  here  before  the  summer  is  over." 
That  hope  was  never  realized,  for  Mrs.  Judson  passed 
away  on  September  20. 

Mrs.  Judson  was  a  woman  of  refined  tastes,  keen  in- 
tellectual ability,  quick  but  rather  restrained  sympathies, 
fine  social  feeling,  and  very  deep  reserve.  In  the  small 
inner  circle  in  which  she  was  known  she  excited  a  re- 
markable admiration.  From  personal  acquaintance  with 
her  the  writer  can  appreciate  the  truth  of  the  following 
tribute  written  after  her  death  to  Doctor  Judson  by  an 
old  friend  of  both : 

I  admired  Mrs.  Judson  greatly,  and  I  have  never  ceased  to 
admire  her.  I  remember  the  brilliant  flashes  in  her  conversation, 
not  infrequently  edged  with  satire.    I  remember  how  individual 


130  EDWARD   JUDSON,    INTERPRETER   OF   GOD 

her  opinions  were,  and  how  vigorously  she  defended  them.  I 
remember  her  unswerving  loyalty  to  her  friends.  I  remember 
how  invariably  she  took  up  the  cudgels  for  the  under-dog.  I 
remember  how  unsparing  she  was  in  helping  a  friend  in  need.  .  . 

Mrs.  Judson  exerted  a  powerful  influence  over  me.  Few 
people  that  I  have  met  in  this  world  have  influenced  me  so 
powerfully.  Possibly  Mrs.  Judson  would  be  surprised  to  know 
this.  And  her  influence  did  more  than  I  can  tell  to  broaden  my 
horizon  and  enlarge  my  understanding  of  Hfe.  .  . 

Mrs.  Judson  possessed  one  of  the  most  intensely  individual 
personalities  that  I  have  ever  known.  It  was  a  personality  like 
attar  of  roses  in  its  intensity — and,  to  me,  in  its  charm. 

She  entered  heartily  into  the  educational  and  social  work 
of  the  church,  particularly  that  which  aimed  to  benefit 
women  and  girls.  Year  after  year  she  played  the  piano 
practically  every  night  at  the  Daily  Service  of  Prayer. 
She  directed  the  sewing  school  and  the  large  gymnasium 
classes  for  women  and  girls,  which  were  among  the 
most  successful  educational  experiments  undertaken  by 
the  church. 

Perhaps  it  was  because  Doctor  Judson's  body  was  so 
keenly  responsive  to  his  soul  that  gradually  the  burden 
which  he  could  not  carry,  but  which  he  would  not  lay 
down,  took  its  toll  from  his  strength. 

After  Mrs.  Judson's  death  he  endeavored  to  take  up 
his  appointed  tasks,  but  his  whole  manner  was  marked 
by  a  deep  depression  which  was  not  characteristic  of 
him.  He  remarked  to  the  writer  one  day  while  walking 
across  town :  "  Well,  I  suppose  you  feel  that  I  am 
rather  pessimistic  these  days ;  perhaps  the  woods  will  do 
something  for  me."  Soon  after  he  sought  the  seclusion 
of  Temogami  and  Emerald  Lake — fifty  miles  from  the 
nearest  approach  of  civilization's  busy  carriers.  Like 
Antseus,  he  had  learned  to  renew  his  strength  by  con- 
tact with  nature.  When,  on  the  nineteenth  of  October,  a 
letter  was  received,  closing  with  "  I  found  a  good  deal 


INTERPRETER   OF   GOD  I3I 

of  resiliency  growing  around  in  the  woods  and  brought 
some  home  with  me,"  the  writer  felt  that  Doctor  Judson 
had  in  mind  his  earher  remark,  and  that  he  had  found 
what  he  sought. 

At  a  luncheon  conference  on  Tuesday,  the  twenty-first 
of  October,  he  was  optimistic  and  his  outlook  was  hope- 
ful— nature's  solitude  had  been  his  soul's  solace.  He 
talked  of  his  plans  to  develop  his  own  work  and  to  assist 
in  raising  the  fund  to  free  the  Judson  Memorial  from  debt. 
The  only  anxiety  he  showed  was  in  connection  with  the 
floating  indebtedness  of  the  church — the  renewal  of  cer- 
tain notes.  With  characteristic  graciousness  he  urged  the 
writer  to  meet  him  each  day  if  possible  at  the  Judson 
Hotel  for  luncheon,  but  it  was  his  own  last  luncheon 
there.  That  afternoon  he  presided  at  the  regular  monthly 
meeting  of  the  New  York  Baptist  City  Mission  Society, 
of  which  he  had  been  president  for  five  years,  and  offered 
the  closing  prayer.  This  was  his  last  public  religious  ser- 
vice. The  following  day  he  attended  a  luncheon  meet- 
ing of  the  Sigma  Chi.  He  closed  the  discussion  of  the 
paper  of  the  day  with  these  familiar  words : 

The  angel  wrote,  and  vanished.    The  next  night 
It  came  again  with  a  great  wakening  Hght, 
And  showed  the  names  whom  love  of  God  had  blessed, 
And  lo !  Ben  Adhem's  name  led  all  the  rest. 

As  he  spoke  he  was  smitten  with  a  heart  attack.  On 
Friday  he  rallied,  but  suddenly  passed  away. 

A  simple  inscription  marks  the  resting-place  of  his 
earthly  tabernacle  in  the  ground  consecrated  by  the 
prayers  of  thirteen  devout  men — ^the  little  college  bury- 
ing-plot  on  the  hill  back  of  Colgate  University  at  Hamil- 
ton, New  York.  His  real  monument  is  the  beautiful  struc- 
ture on  Washington  Square  at  the  foot  of  Fifth  Avenue, 
New  York  City.     Built  by  him  as  a  memorial  to  his 


132  EDWARD   JUDSON,    INTERPRETER   OF   GOD 

father,  it  is  a  memorial  to  the  son,  c-x/?ressive  v\  its 
architecture  of  his  artistic  soul,  in  its  endowment  features 
of  his  practical  sense,  in  its  facilities  for  ministry  of  his 
social  passion,  and  in  its  central  thought  of  worship  of  his 
devotion. 

Doctor  Judson  is  survived  by  his  two  daughters,  Sarah 
Elizabeth  and  Margaret,  the  latter  of  whom  has  held 
the  position  of  dean  of  women  at  Denison  University, 
and  is  at  present  associate  professor  of  English  in  Vassar 
College.  He  is  survived  also  by  his  brother  Henry,  of 
whom  Doctor  Judson  at  the  Centennial  in  Boston  said: 

The  oldest  of  the  three  babes  left  in  Burma  was  my  brother 
Henry,  three  years  older  than  myself.  We  had  hoped  that  he 
could  be  with  us  to-day.  I  hold  in  my  hand  the  ticket  admitting 
him  to  this  platform.  But  sickness  imperatively  prevented  his 
coming.  Indeed,  he  was  permanently  disabled  while  fighting 
under  the  Union  flag  in  the  Civil  War. 

The  fitting  tribute  to  Edward  Judson  at  the  Judson 
Centennial  in  Burma,  the  recognition  dinner  in  New 
York  City,  the  ovation  at  the  Centennial  in  Boston,  and 
the  enthusiastic  welcome  of  scores  of  churches  were 
more  than  marks  of  esteem  for  the  son  of  the  honored 
pioneer  of  foreign  missions.  They  were  loving  tributes 
paid  to  one  who  had  achieved  a  noble  character  and 
done  a  notable  work — a  work  as  distinctive  as  that  of 
his  father — a  recognition  that  he  had  to  a  high  degree 
reincarnated  those  attributes  which  in  Christ  the  world 
first  learned  to  call  Christian;  that  he  had  indeed  suc- 
ceeded in  his  main  life  effort  to  be  a  Christian,  and  to 
that  degree  had  glorified  those  qualities  through  which, 
in  Christ,  God  had  made  his  supreme  interpretation  to 
man ;  and  that  thereby  he  had  become  an  interpreter  of 
God. 

Edward  Judson  saw  that  the  incarnation  is  the  divine 
concession  to  the  inability  of  man  to  comprehend  the 


EDWARD  lUDSON 


INTERPRETER   OF    GOD  133 

teaching  of  God  as  revealed  by  seers  and  prophets,  and 
to  enter  his  presence  when  led  only  by  priests.  He  saw 
that  those  qualities  which  we  have  come  to  know  as 
Christian  virtues — the  teachable  spirit,  the  spirit  of 
humility,  the  forgiving  spirit,  the  spirit  of  simplicity, 
transparency  of  life  and  motive,  compassion  for  suffer- 
ing, and  the  essential  oneness  of  human  life — could  be 
demonstrated  only  in  life  itself;  that  the  divine  method 
of  demonstration  was  by  the  incarnation  of  God  in 
Christ — the  transformation  of  humanity  by  divinity;  that 
the  "  Word  became  flesh,"  that  "  God  was  in  Christ," 
that  we  have  a  Christlike  God. 

He  saw  that  in  communities  in  which  the  knowledge 
of  the  supreme  incarnation  of  God  in  Jesus  Christ  has 
been  obscured  by  an  elaborate  ritualism  if  not  totally  lost 
in  blind  traditionalism,  where  sacramentarianism  has  dis- 
placed religion,  there  the  incarnation  must  be  made  in- 
telligible by  a  rt^incarnation  of  the  teachable  spirit,  the 
spirit  of  humility,  the  forgiving  spirit,  the  spirit  of  sim- 
plicity, and  the  spirit  of  sympathy;  that  the  spirit  of 
Christ  must  become  flesh  and  dwell  with  man ;  that  men 
must  become  "  complete  in  him,"  interpreters  of  God 
through  Christ ;  that  the  "  marvel  of  the  mystery  of  the 
incarnation  of  God  in  Christ "  must  be  "  repeated  in 
human  history  and  experience." 

To  him  the  incarnation  was  fundamental.  This  is 
brought  out  clearly  in  his  lecture  on  "  The  Religion  of 
Matthew  Arnold."    He  said  of  Matthew  Arnold : 

He  missed  God,  revealed  to  us  in  Christ,  who  is  declared  by 
the  apostle  to  be  the  express  imape  of  the  divine  Person.  Can- 
not such  a  God  be  verified  by  experience  as  truly  as  a  God 
that  makes  for  righteousness?  The  incarnation,  if  we  once  accept 
it,  is  the  resolvent  of  all  anthropomorphic  difficulties.  "  I  believe 
in  God,  and  in  prayer,  but  not  in  Christ."  To  what  do  you  pray? 
Without  the  incarnation  we  worship  only  a  creature  of  our  own 


134  EDWARD   JUDSON,    INTERPRETER   OF   GOD 

manufacture.  We  cannot  conceive  of  any  being  above  man,  just 
as  a  dog  can  only  think  in  dog  terms.  To  him  a  man  is  only 
another  dog — the  leader  of  the  pack — an  elongated  dog.  The 
evidence  of  this  is  that  when  he  is  gnawing  a  musty  bone  and 
you  approach  him,  he  will  growl,  thinking  that  you  want  his 
bone.  If  we  try  to  imagine  an  angel,  he  is,  after  all,  only  a 
man  with  bird's  wings.  And  so,  when  the  heathen  make  a 
god,  it  is  either  a  man  or  a  beast  or  a  conglomerate  of  the  two. 
Why  then  does  it  seem  strange  that  God  should  foreshorten  him- 
self within  the  range  of  our  comprehension,  that  we  may  ap- 
proach him  in  prayer?  Christ  in  his  own  life  and  character 
transcends  the  largest  conception  of  the  divine  which  the  human 
mind  can  form.  In  molding  bullets  you  put  lead  into  an  iron 
ladle,  and  liquefy  it  over  a  fire.  Then  you  pour  the  molten 
mass  into  a  small  mold.  Some  of  the  lead  fills  the  mold,  some 
overflows,  and  falls  on  the  floor,  while  some  still  remains  in 
the  ladle.  Now,  if  you  will,  form  the  largest  conception  you  can 
of  Deity — a  being  infinitely  wise,  strong,  and  loving — and  then 
using  this  conception  as  a  mold,  if  you  pour  into  it  the  historic 
character  of  Jesus  Christ,  just  as  he  is  described  in  the  four 
Gospels,  you  will  find  that  it  will  more  than  fill  the  mold  full. 
"  If  you  believe  in  God,  believe  in  me." 

The  great  fact  of  the  reincarnation  of  Christ  in  man 
is  fundamental  in  church  institutionahsm.  "  Only  a  life 
which  has  been  hid  with  Christ  in  God  can  communicate 
spiritual  energy."  The  wealth  of  an  institutional  church 
is  not  its  equipment,  nor  indeed  its  material  income,  but 
the  wealth  of  personality  invested — lives  "  hid  with  Christ 
in  God  "  in  contact  with  needy  ones. 

Edward  Judson's  first  concern  was  to  make  a  success 
of  himself,  to  incarnate  in  his  own  life  the  Christ  spirit; 
to  become  in  some  degree  an  interpreter  of  God. 

His  intimate  talks  with  his  students  revealed  the  high 
standard  which  he  had  set  for  himself  as  a  Christian 
minister.  His  lecture  notes  are  given  with  here  and 
there  a  word  substituted,  to  complete  a  sentence,  because 
they  form  a  kind  of  autobiography — a  more  familiar  pic- 
ture than  the  writer  would  have  ventured  to  give. 


interpreter  of  god  135 

The  Making  of  the  Minister.    Edward  Judson's 
Lecture  Notes 

The  minister's  symmetrical  self-development,  with  a  view  to 
social  expression,  and  efficiency  in  service  is  the  general  theme  of 
this  course  of  lectures.  Christ's  character  and  purpose  fixed  for 
him  the  minister's  highest  ideal. 

Christ's  nature  was  intensely  social. 

"  A  being  not  too  bright  and  good, 
For  human  nature's  daily  food." 

He  was  not  a  student.  He  resorted  to  frequented  places ;  loved 
to  be  jostled  by  the  crowd ;  took  his  promenades  among  the 
fishing-smacks  along  the  shore  of  the  Lake  of  Galilee.  He  loved 
to  mingle  with  working  men  and  little  children. 

"And  so  the  Word  had  breath,  and  wrought 
With  human  hands  the  creed  of  creeds 
In  loveliness  of  perfect  deeds. 
More  strong  than  all  poetic  thought ; 

"Which  he  may  read  that  binds  the  sheaf. 
Or  builds  the  house,  or  digs  the  grave. 
And  those  wild  eyes  that  watch  the  wave 
In  roarings  round  the  coral  reef." 

He  was  the  originator  of  a  social  organism— not  an  author, 
not  an  artist,  not  a  philosopher.  His  disciples  were  his  family — 
his  book.  There  is  both  difficulty  and  joy  in  producing  a  social 
organism,  in  making  our  thoughts  objective,  in  freezing  our 
thoughts  into  metal. 

Bergson  makes  a  fine  distinction  between  joy  and  pleasure : 
the  artist  makes  money  and  has  pleasure,  but  his  joy  is  in  creating. 

The  essential  ministry  is  characterized  by  spiritual  helpfulness. 
According  to  a  Hindu  proverb,  a  young  plant  should  always  be 
protected  by  a  fence  from  the  mischief  of  goats  and  cows;  but 
when  it  once  becomes  a  big  tree,  a  flock  of  sheep  or  a  herd  of 
cows  may  find  shelter  under  its  spreading  branches  and  fill  their 
stomachs  with  its  leaves. 

"  Let  me  live  in  a  house  by  the  side  of  the  road. 
And  be  a  friend  to  man. 
K 


136  EDWARD   JUDSON,    INTERPRETER   OF   GOD 

"  And  he  was  dear  to  men ;  for  lie  befriended  them  all, 
Living  in  a  house  by  the  side  of  the  road." 

Every  Christian  is  a  minister,  or  one  in  the  making.  There 
is  no  such  thing  in  the  Scriptures  as  holy  orders;  the  universal 
priesthood  of  believers  is  taught.  There  is  infinite  mischief  in 
an  organized  priesthood.  There  is  crying  need  of  a  lay  ministry. 
Much  of  the  work  we  do  could  be  done  by  laymen,  and  will 
finally  be  done  by  them. 

The  technical  ministry  is  dependent  upon  the  essential  min- 
istry. There  is  need  of  intelligent  response  and  cooperation  from 
the  pew.  The  tendency  is  to  make  technical  ministers  of  intel- 
ligent and  consecrated  laymen — exhausting  the  pews  in  the  in- 
terest of  the  pulpit.  One  should  enter  the  technical  ministry- 
only  under  pressure,  having  the  "  woe  is  me  "  feeling. 

The  minister  is  a  leader  in  the  church ;  he  tends  "  the  flock  of 
God  which  is  among  you,  exercising  the  oversight,  not  of  con- 
straint, but  willingly,  according  unto  God ;  nor  yet  for  filthy 
lucre,  but  of  a  ready  mind;  neither  as  lording  it  over  the  charge 
allotted  to  you,  but  making  yourselves  ensamples  to  the  flock" 
(i  Peters  :  2,  3,  R-  V.). 

The  man  is  more  than  his  work :  "  If  any  man's  work  shall 
abide  which  he  built  thereon,  he  shall  receive  a  reward.  If  any 
man's  work  shall  be  burned,  he  shall  suffer  loss;  but  he  himself 
shall  be  saved;  yet  so  as  through  fire"  (i  Cor.  3  :  14,  15,  R.  V.). 

There  should  be  a  symmetrical  development  of  our  quadrilateral 
nature.  "And  Jesus  advanced  in  wisdom  and  stature,  and  in 
favor  with  God  and  men"  (Luke  2  :  52,  R.  V.).  Do  not  have 
the  weakness  of  a  one-sided  development.  The  rounded  man 
counts  most  in  modern  civilization,  a  man  who  has  no  soft  spots. 
Great  results  are  achieved  by  combination.  Individualism  be- 
longs to  a  lower  civilization. 

In  the  ministry  there  is  opportunity  for  self-development  with 
an  altruistic  end.  At  first  blush  this  is  a  refined  selfishness ;  but 
the  highest  egoism  and  the  purest  altruism  are  identical. 

The  minister  should  have  bodily  health.  Christ  was  a  carpenter. 
He  ate  simple  food — fish,  bread,  olives,  wine.  He  lived  in  the 
open  air,  and  took  long  walks.  There  is  no  mention  of  his  having 
any  sickness.  The  body  nailed  to  the  cross  was  a  sound,  healthy 
body.  He  held  the  body  in  honor.  He  condemned  asceticism. 
He  did  not  regard  the  body  as  a  clog.  Flesh  does  not  mean 
muscular  tissue,  but  the  evil  nature ;  the  world,  not  this  beautiful 


INTERPRETER   OF    GOD  137 

earth,  but  men  and  things  opposed  to  God.     Let  us  not  always 
say: 

"  Spite  of  this  body  to-day, 
I  strove,  made  head,  gained  ground  upon  the  whole. 
As  the  bird  wings  and  sings. 
Let  us  cry :  All  good  things 
Are  ours ;  not  soul  helps  flesh  more  now  than  flesh  helps  soul." 

The  strains  of  ministerial  life  are  severe.  They  involve: 
Keeping  appointments,  racing  from  one  engagement  to  another; 
climbing  stairs,  taking  long  walks,  catching  public  conveyances. 
There  are  occasions  of  special  excitement.  Calmness  comes  from 
health.  Crj'stals  dissolve  in  the  slow  acid  of  time.  Outlive  your 
competitors  and  opponents.  Success  resides  in  longevity  and 
good  behavior.    Fret  not  thy  gizzard. 

The  conditions  of  bodily  health  are  first,  food.  We  are  what 
we  eat.  Seek  food  that  contains  all  the  elements  needed  for 
repairing  the  waste  tissue.  Alcoholic  stimulants  give  no  nourish- 
ment and  prod  the  heart.  Total  abstinence  is  the  only  safe 
course.  Eat  enough,  but  not  too  much.  There  is  danger  both 
of  being  ill-nourished  and  of  overeating.  Have  a  diet  for  each 
day. 

Ventilation  is  vital.  Ventilate  j'our  room  after  study  and  before 
going  to  bed.  Breathe  through  the  nostrils.  If  you  find  your 
mouth  open,  get  right  up  and  shut  it.  Look  out  for  intake  and 
vent.    In  building  a  church,  provide  ventilatory  apparatus. 

Cleanliness  is  essential.  Take  time  to  be  clean.  Be  well 
groomed.  Learn  the  relation  of  teeth  to  health,  public  speaking, 
and  social  life.  Clean  hands  are  noticeable.  Give  attention  to 
nails  (in  private).  Keep  hair  neatly  trimmed  and  brushed,  and 
a  healthy  scalp. 

Take  exercise  once  a  day  for  sjTnmetrical  development.  Take 
time  for  play  and  for  fun. 

Social  health  is  important,  for  religion  is  imparted  by  social 
infection.  Cultivate  social  charm.  Other  things  being  equal, 
your  power  in  winning  souls  \vill  be  measured  by  your  capacity 
to  inspire  affection  and  respect.  Get  people  to  love  you  if  you 
want  to  do  them  good.  Independence  is  a  condition  of  social 
health.  "  Not  that  I  speak  in  respect  of  want ;  for  I  have  learned, 
in  whatsoever  state  I  am,  therein  to  be  content.  I  know  how 
to  be  abased,  and  I  know  also  how  to  abound ;  in  ever>'thing  and 


138  EDWARD   JUDSON,    INTERPRETER   OF   GOD 

in  all  things  have  I  learned  the  secret  both  to  be  filled  and  to 
be  hungry,  both  to  abound  and  to  be  in  want"  (Phil.  4  :  11, 
12,  R.  v.). 

Do  not  be  an  incubus  or  a  leaning  tree.  One  of  the  besetting 
sins  of  the  ministerial  life  is  to  think  that  the  world  owes 
us  a  living,  that  we  can  pay  board  by  good  behavior.  It  is  such 
an  attitude  that  leads  many  to  consider  that  the  ministry  is  not 
a  manly  profession  and  that  makes  our  good  unpalatable.  The 
beneficiary  system  is  justifiable,  but  it  tests  the  moral  fiber.  Being 
exempt  from  wage-earning  toil  leads  to  the  impression  that  one 
is  an  object  of  charity.  Such  an  impression  must  be  lived  down. 
Contract  for  salary,  but  be  grateful  for  favors  and  reciprocate. 
Do  not  take  the  attitude  that  "  the  world  owes  me  a  living,"  but 
rather  "  I  will  make  myself  indispensable."  Do  not  lean  on  others, 
but  let  others  lean  upon  us.  But  the  extreme  of  independence, 
on  the  other  hand,  alienates.  It  makes  people  love  us  when  we 
permit  them  to  do  things  for  us.  In  this  we  may  follow  the 
example  of  Jesus  who  let  people  do  things  for  him.    Avoid  debt. 

Association  with  refined  people  is  essential  to  social  health. 
No  one  will  tell  us  our  social  faults.  We  must  follow  the  law 
of  imitation.  We  unconsciously  become  like  those  with  whom 
we  associate.  Cultivate  acquaintance  with  the  most  refined  people 
of  the  town.  Give  some  evenings  to  society.  Cultivate  some 
social  accomplishment.  Associate  with  women,  refined  women, 
but  not  to  the  exclusion  of  men. 

Courtesy — kindness  in  little  things  should  be  habitually  exer- 
cised. Refined  manners  should  be  cultivated  at  home  and 
abroad — in  the  parlor  and  at  the  table  and  everywhere ;  scrupulous 
observance  of  the  countless  little  conventionalities  that  make 
up  civilized  life;  tender  regard  for  the  feelings  of  others,  espe- 
cially of  those  of  low  degree ;  a  nice  sense  of  honor  that  keeps 
without  fail  every  promise  and  engagement;  such  deference  for 
others  that  one  will  not  monopolize  the  conversation,  or  always 
talk  shop,  or  tell  old  or  pointless  or  vulgar  or  irreverent  stories, 
or  speak  unkindly  of  the  absent,  especially  of  our  brother  minis- 
ters; these  are  some  of  the  constituent  parts  of  that  personal 
culture  without  which  our  public  homilies  are  apt  to  fall  upon 
unresponsive  soil. 

Attention  should  be  given  to  pulpit  manners.  The  manner  in 
the  pulpit  should  be  marked  by  deliberateness.  There  is  value  in 
pauses;  speaking  to  those  farthest  away;  have  neither  stiflFness 
nor  lounging;  sit  with  legs  uncrossed;  stand  erect  without  air 


INTERPRETER   OF    GOD  I 39 

of  defiance,  one  foot  behind  the  other;  look  people  in  the  eye 
for  the  inspiration  of  it;  have  an  attitude  of  conciliation,  a 
pleasant  look,  not  a  threatening  aspect,  nor  too  solemn.  Keep 
a  sweet  temper,  even  when  there  are  disturbances  in  worship, 
baby  crying,  whispering,  a  person  coughing,  people  coming  in 
late,  or  people  falling  asleep.  Acquire  the  gift  of  praising  instead 
of  blaming. 

Spiritual  health  is  dependent  upon  communion  with  Christ, 
abiding  in  the  consciousness  of  the  presence  and  love  of  Christ ; 
not  our  love  to  Christ,  but  his  love  to  us.  "  Grow  in  the  grace 
and  the  knowledge  of  the  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ."  The 
grace  of  Christ  and  the  knowledge  of  Christ  constitute  the  soil 
in  which  we  grow  like  a  plant.  Grace  is  the  love  of  a  superior 
to  an  inferior — a  love  that  comes  down.  Grace  is  love  extended 
to  one  who  not  only  does  not  deserve  it,  but  has  done  much  to 
forfeit  it.  By  dwelling  in  the  consciousness  of  this  love  and  be- 
coming more  and  more  acquainted  with  Christ,  as  friend  with 
friend,  we  grow.  The  Holy  Spirit  is  Christ  himself  present  to 
the  believer.  "  I  will  not  leave  you  orphans :  I  come  unto  you." 
Christ  is  the  human  spirit's  guardian  angel.  It  requires  imagina- 
tion for  us  to  be  aware  of  the  presence  of  a  Being  whom  we 
cannot  see  with  the  e}'es  of  flesh.  But  the  imagination  has  facts 
to  work  with.  There  can  be  no  religion,  or  even  morality,  with- 
out imagination.  How  can  a  man  keep  the  Golden  Rule  without 
imagination  enough  to  put  himself  in  the  place  of  the  other 
man?  Spiritual  health  is  conditioned  upon  our  habitually  abiding 
in  the  consciousness  of  the  presence  and  love  of  Christ,  dwelling 
in  him,  as  the  tiny  goldfish  in  its  watery  environment,  or  a  branch 
in  a  vine,  or  a  slave  in  the  master,  or  a  wife  in  a  husband. 

Abiding  in  Christ  is  the  very  core  of  religion— not  orthodoxj^ 
not  philanthrop}',  not  ritual,  not  organization.  Like  a  prisoner 
in  the  dark  cell,  who  hears  the  kind,  reassuring  voice  of  the 
chaplain  in  the  room  above,  who  says,  "  I  will  stay  here  as 
long  as  you  are  confined  in  the  dark  cell."  The  darkness  then 
seems  all  dispersed. 

Edward  Judson  sought  systematically  to  develop  his 
whole  nature — physical,  social,  intellectual,  and  spiritual. 
Though  a  sickly  babe  deprived  of  a  mother's  care,  a  deli- 
cate youth  entrusted  to  strangers,  he  grew  into  strength 
of  physical  manhood  with  a  body  splendidly  developed 


140  EDWARD   JUDSON,    INTERPRETER   OF   GOD 

and  disciplined  to  obey  a  steady  will.  Diet  and  exercise 
were  reduced  to  a  kind  of  daily  ritual.  He  was  fond  of 
outdoor  life,  delighting  in  the  canoe  and  the  camp,  loving 
to  fish  and  to  hunt,  and  to  take  vacations,  not  at  a  seaside 
resort,  but  in  trackless  wilds,  in  nature's  solitude.  Re- 
garding his  physical  strength  his  brother.  Dr.  Adoniram 
Judson,  made  this  statement  a  short  time  before  his 
own  death: 

Through  boyhood  and  early  manhood  his  bright  mind,  per- 
sonal attractiveness,  and  strong  ambition  easily  made  him  a 
welcome  leader.  He  was  never  deficient  in  physical  examination. 
In  many  observations  with  the  spirometer,  an  instrument  for 
determining  the  capacity  of  the  chest,  I  never  found  any  one 
to  excel  him.  Zealous  in  sport  with  rod  and  gun,  each  season 
found  him  on  the  trail  in  the  wild  woods. 

His  social  health  was  reflected  in  his  perfect  urbanity. 
He  had  social  charm  and  ease  of  manner  under  every  cir- 
cumstance. His  delicate  attention  to  small  matters  of 
personal  habit  enhanced  his  personal  attractiveness.  He 
avoided  economic  dependence.  Early  in  life  he  resolved 
to  live  on  a  little  less  than  his  salary,  and  always  did 
so,  but  he  never  allowed  himself  to  become  involved  in 
business  matters  for  personal  gain.  Like  a  surgeon,  he 
kept  his  hands  antiseptically  clean — to  use  one  of  his  own 
illustrations.  At  one  time  he  declined  the  opportunity 
to  make  an  investment  of  a  modest  sum  which  gave  prom- 
ise of  large  future  returns — a  promise  more  than  justi- 
fied by  later  events.  He  was  scrupulous  in  all  financial 
matters.  All  funds  for  the  church  and  its  varied  missions 
were  acknowledged,  deposited,  and  drawn  upon  by  a 
chartered  public  accountant,  the  paid  treasurer  of  the 
church,  and  all  business  affairs  of  the  church  were  under 
the  guidance  of  a  lawyer  of  recognized  standing  who 
gave  his  sei-vices  without  remuneration.  Doctor  Judson 
voluntarily  remitted  to  the  church  his  earnings  from  his 


INTERrRETER   OE   GOD  14^ 

teachings,  his  lectures,  addresses,  and  occasional  sermons, 
aggregating  some  years  as  much  as  his  salary. 

He  found  delight  in  social  intercourse.  He  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Century  Club,  the  Philothean  Society,  and  the 
Sigmi  Chi,  both  of  the  latter  organizations  of  clergymen. 
In  college  he  joined  the  Alpha  Delta  Phi  fraternity.  He 
took  special  pleasure  in  college  associations,  but  his  prin- 
cipal social  enjoyment  was  found  in  his  family  circle  and 
in  his  church.  Few  men  have  been  more  habitually  kind 
than  he— to  his  associates  and  personal  friends,  but  no 
less  to  the  lowly.  He  observed  his  own  teachings  in  mat- 
ters of  courtesy. 

He  had  remarkable  capacity  for  friendship.  Ever  a 
welcomed  guest,  men  liked  to  have  him  near ;  he  radiated 
good  cheer  and  cleared  the  air  for  a  good  outlook.  The 
"  Watchman-Examiner  "  said  of  him : 

We  doubt  if  there  has  been  a  man  among  us  during  the  past 
generation  so  universally  loved  and  respected  as  Doctor  Judson. 

Dr.  William  M.  Lawrence,  almost  a  lifelong  associate, 
gave  this  testimony  and  characterization : 

Probably  no  name  and  no  face  were  more  familiar  to  the 
Baptists  of  America  than  were  the  name  and  face  of  Edward 
Judson.  Nor  need  this  statement  be  confined  to  the  denomina- 
tion of  which  he  was  so  eminent  a  representative.  He  was 
known  and  beloved  by  thousands  of  people  connected  with  other 
churches. 

He  loved  the  birds  and  brooks.  He  loved  the  fields.  He  loved 
the  solitude  of  the  woods.  He  loved  the  sports.  He  had  a  keen 
reHsh  for  the  heart  of  nature.  Even  the  birds  seemed  to  know 
him.  Animals  were  fond  of  him.  He  loved  men,  but  he  loved 
the  creatures  God  brought  into  the  world  to  be  the  companions 
of  men.  I  used  to  think  that  his  mirth  was  never  more  free 
and  his  wit  was  never  more  apparent  than  when  he  was  petting 
some  animal  that  had  made  its  home  on  liis  grounds. 

Doctor  Lawrence  has  said  also  that  he  never  knew  Doc- 
tor Judson  to  speak  unkindly  of  another  minister,  that 


142  EDWARD   JUDSON,    INTERPRETER   OF   GOD 

because  of  his  wholesome  influences  he  was  especially 
welcome  at  his  family  table. 

Delicately  refined  in  his  manner,  observant  of  social 
conventions,  keen  in  understanding,  tender  in  sympathies, 
quick  in  service,  concealing  his  heart  throes,  these  words 
of  which  he  was  fond  may  be  applied  to  him: 

But  thou  wouldst  not  alone 
Be  saved,  my  father!  alone 
Conquer  and  come  to  thy  goal, 
Leaving  the  rest  in  the  wild. 
We  were  weary,  and  we 
Fearful,  and  we  in  our  march 
Fain  to  drop  down  and  to  die. 
Still  thou  turnedst,  and  still 
Beckonedst  the  trembler,  and  still 
Gavest  the  weary  thy  hand. 
If,  in  the  paths  of  the  world. 
Stones  might  have  wounded  thy  feet 
Toil  or  dejection  have  tried 
Thy  spirit,  of  that  we  saw 
Nothing :  to  us  thou  wast  still 
Cheerful,  and  helpful,  and  firm ! 
Therefore  to  thee  it  was  given 
Many  to  save  with  thyself ; 
And,  at  the  end  of  thy  day, 
O  faithful  shepherd!  to  come. 
Bringing-  thy  sheep  in  thy  hand. 

We  know  of  no  one  whose  life  more  expressed  the  senti- 
ment: "  Life  is  neither  a  pain  nor  a  pleasure,  but  a  seri- 
ous business  which  it  is  our  duty  to  carry  through  and 
terminate  with  honor."  He  had  large  capacity  both 
for  pain  and  pleasure,  just  how  large  only  his  intimate 
friends  could  know,  but  neither  took  him  from  his  ap- 
pointed course.  With  all  his  gentleness  of  manner,  so- 
cial charm,  scholarly  diversions,  and  delight  in  quiet  re- 
treats, he  never  forgot  the  serious  business  of  his  life, 
which  he  carried  through  and  terminated  with  honor. 


INTERrRETER   OF   GOD  I43 

He  was  mentally  industrious  and  exact  in  his  sciiolar- 
ships.  He  was  always  a  student,  whether  in  daily  language 
study;  in  university  classroom,  following  a  wide  range 
of  thought;  with  magazine  writers,  the  best  of  whose 
works  he  carefully  filed;  or  in  a  study  of  the  poets  and 
hymn-writers,  of  whose  work  he  had  a  discriminating  ap- 
preciation. While  not  musical,  he  knew  the  best  com- 
posers of  church  music,  and  industriously  cultivated  the 
use  of  classical  hymns. 

Progressive  in  thought,  he  was  irenic  in  spirit  and  never 
destructive  in  criticism.  He  felt  the  necessity  of  recon- 
ciling changing  human  thought  and  varying  human  ex- 
periences with  the  eternal  realities,  even  though  this 
should  involve  a  keen  mental  struggle  and  sometimes  a 
spiritual  anguish.  He  said,  "  There  is  hardly  any  men- 
tal pain  so  exquisite  as  to  feel  long-cherished  belief  slip- 
ping out  of  your  grasp." 

His  faith  was  vital,  growing  out  of  a  living  experience. 
He  said: 

The  true  orthodoxy  consists  not  so  much  in  trj'ing  to  hold  with 
hmp  and  trembhng  hand  a  whole  vast  system  of  tenuously 
articulated  dogmas,  as  in  realizing  for  one's  self  in  a  deep  and 
personal  way  the  few  essentials  that  lie  at  the  very  center  of 
Christianity,  leaving  the  rest  to  come  along  in  time  as  corollary. 
Faith  is  not  cast;  it  grows.  .  . 

The  better  way  is  to  seize  upon  a  few  central  truths  con- 
tained in  Christianity  that  seem  sweetly  reasonable,  such  as  the 
existence  of  God  and  his  beneficence,  as  even  Renan  puts  it  in 
one  of  his  last  lectures:  "One  thing  only  is  certain;  it  is  that 
the  fatherly  smile  at  certain  hours  shines  across  Nature  and 
assures  us  that  there  is  an  eye  looking  at  us,  and  a  heart  which 
follows  us."  God's  Fatherhood,  especially  as  personalized  and 
envisaged  in  Christ,  makes  good  material  for  a  working  h\Tpoth- 
esis  of  life,  and  we  soon  learn  to  relate  it  to  other  Christian 
truths,  as  shipwrecked  mariners,  marooned  on  some  desert 
island,  lash  logs  together  into  a  rude  raft  that  bears  them  up 
as  they  push  out  upon  the  open  sea.     Faith  is  the  disposition 


144  EDWARD   JUDSON,   INTERPRETER   OF    GOD 

in  the  realm  of  religion  to  act  upon  probability.     There  can  be 
no  such  thing  as  mathematical  demonstration  in  religion. 

He  was  robust  in  his  spiritual  health.  His  knowledge 
of  Christ  was  the  soil  in  which  he  grew  like  a  fruitful 
plant.  His  life  was  "  hid  with  Christ  in  God."  He  took 
time  "  to  be  holy  "  in  the  true  sense  of  that  word.  He 
had  peculiar  joy  in  regarding  the  recorded  words  of 
Christ  as  spoken  for  his  own  personal  guidance  and 
consolation.  He  seemed  ever  conscious  of  the  reassuring 
words  of  his  Lord.  He  built  his  life  upon  his  daily 
Bible  study  and  private  devotion.  On  the  basis  of  a 
triumphant  faith  he  had  the  poise  and  serenity  of  spirit 
attributed  to  the  stars  by  these  well-known  lines : 

Unaffrighted  by  the  silence  round  them, 

Undistracted  by  the  sights  they  see, 
These  demand  not  that  the  things  without  them 

Yield  them  love,  amusement,  sympathy. 

And  with  joy  the  stars  perform  their  shining, 
And  the  sea  its  long  moon-silver'd  roll ; 

For  self-poised  they  live,  nor  pine  with  noting 
All  the  fever  of  some  differing  soul. 

He  became  to  a  remarkably  high  degree  the  fulfilment 
of  his  own  ideals.  Personality  has  an  elusive,  subtle 
quality  which  is  more  difficult  to  describe  than  a  sunset. 
His  associates  in  the  Philothean  Society,  one  of  the 
ministerial  clubs  in  which  he  was  long  a  member,  gave 
this  estimate  of  his  character  and  work: 

In  noting  the  death  of  Dr.  Edward  Judson,  Philo  desires  to 
put  on  record  its  high  estimate  and  affectionate  appreciation 
of  his  character  and  career.  An  honorary  member  of  this 
circle  at  the  time  of  his  death,  October  23,  he  was  an  active 
member  for  many  years,  faithful  and  regular  in  attendance  and 
contributing  much  to  its  pleasure  and  profit.  He  was  a  man  of 
phenomenal  amiability.  Inheriting  a  name  which  would  have 
won  for  him  honor,  respect,  and  distinction,  he  added  to  it  by 


INTERPRETER   OF   GOD  145 

his  own  fine  qualities  of  mind  and  heart.  He  had  a  temper 
serene,  gentle,  and  modest ;  a  spirit  kind,  courteous,  and  cordial ; 
and  a  disposition  genial,  sweet,  and  lovable  in  the  highest  degree. 
He  was  affable  and  gracious  in  manner,  generous  in  sentiment, 
sympathetic  and  catholic  in  his  judgments.  He  drew  all  hearts 
to  him,  and  commanded  in  a  peculiar  way  the  admiration  and 
love  of  all  who  came  in  contact  with  his  winsome  and  attractive 
nature.  He  had  an  intellect  keen  and  brilliant,  a  mind  well 
trained  and  richly  stored,  full  of  quaint  but  apposite  allusion, 
poetic  thought,  and  shrewd  insight.  His  style  of  speech  and 
writing  was  simple  but  extremely  felicitous,  abounding  in  apt 
quotation  and  picturesque  description,  happy  characterization,  de- 
lightful surprises,  and  striking  phrases.  He  was  full  of  humor, 
which  played  over  the  surface  of  his  thought  like  heat-lightning 
in  summer,  but  like  that  heat-lightning  it  never  harmed  the 
object  illumined  by  its  flash.  He  was  a  man  of  deep  religious 
faith,  holding  tenaciously  to  the  few  fundamental  truths  of 
Christianit>',  which  he  gripped  all  the  more  strongly  because  they 
were  few.  The  word  saintly  in  its  best  sense  was  appropriate 
for  his  character.  Coming  to  this  city  in  1881,  he  founded  and 
built  up  a  strong  and  influential  church  in  the  lower  part  of 
New  York,  in  which  the  evangelistic  and  philanthropic  agencies 
went  hand  in  hand.  He  may  justly  be  called  the  father  of  the 
institutional  church.  In  the  face  of  many  obstacles  he  succeeded 
in  establishing  an  organization  of  Christian  enterprise  along  many 
diversified  lines,  which  was  in  many  respects  unique,  and  which 
has  been  the  model  and  inspiration  of  many  institutions  of  a 
similar  character  throughout  our  country.  Take  him  for  all 
in  all,  Edward  Judson  was  a  remarkable  man,  and  we  shall 
not  soon  look  upon  his  like  again. 

The  Sigmi  Chi,  another  organization  of  prominent  clergy- 
men of  several  communions,  whose  meeting  was  honored 
by  his  last  public  appearance,  thus  expressed  his  genius 
for  fellowship : 

We  bear  our  grateful  tribute  also  to  his  genius  for  friend- 
ship, of  which  every  member  of  the  Sigma  Chi  had  so  rich  a 
share.  However  hea\'y  his  own  burdens,  he  was  ever  ready 
to  bear  the  burdens  of  others.  He  was  such  a  true  comrade  and 
loving  counselor.  His  kindness  and  courtesy,  his  tact  and 
gentle  humor,  his  grace  from  God  and  faith  in  his  fellow  men, 


146  EDWARD   JUDSON,    INTERPRETER   OF   GOD 

not  only  sustained  him  under  trials  and  amid  difficulties  that 
would  have  overborne  others,  but  made  him  true  yokefellow 
with  all  whose  loads  but  for  him  had  chafed  them  and  whose 
trials  had  discouraged  them. 

In  his  address  at  the  Centennial  in  Boston  Edward  Jud- 
son,  in  acknowledgment  of  his  debt  to  his  father's  life 
and  influence,  said: 

The  sainted  dead  sway  our  lives  more  profoundly  than  when 
they  are  with  us.  In  the  hours  of  perplexity  we  keep  asking 
what  they  would  do  were  they  in  our  place.  I  have  often 
thought  that  my  father's  influence  upon  my  life  has  been  greater 
than  it  would  have  been  had  he  been  spared  to  me  through  these 
years. 

The  outstanding  characteristics  of  the  father  were  re- 
produced in  the  son;  the  same  attention  to  health,  food, 
and  dress;  the  same  social  nature,  expressed  in  the  son, 
but  restrained  in  the  father;  the  same  fondness  for  lin- 
guistic and  literary  pursuits ;  the  same  aptitude  for  teach- 
ing; the  same  loyalty  to  conviction  and  unreserved  com- 
mitment to  a  task;  the  saine  buoyant  spirit,  unconquer- 
ably youthful  to  the  end;  the  same  pertinacity  of  purpose 
and  dogged  determination ;  and  the  same  sustaining  faith 
in  the  heavenly  Father. 

His  mother's  influence  upon  his  character  was  hardly 
less  marked.  Those  who  knew  intimately  both  Edward 
Judson  and  George  Dana  Boardman  say  that  there  was 
a  stronger  resemblance  between  the  half-brothers  than 
between  Edward  Judson  and  his  own  brothers.  His 
appearance,  his  manner,  his  artistic  sense,  his  gift  for 
organization,  as  indeed  his  scholarly  tastes,  were  in- 
herited quite  as  much  from  his  mother  as  from  his  father. 

This  closing  chapter  does  not  give  opportunity  for  a 
restatement  of  his  significant  service.  Through  the  old 
Berean  Church — perhaps  truly  called  the  first  institutional 
church ;  through  its  successor,  the  Judson  ^Memorial — the 


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INTERPRETER   OF   GOD  147 

creation  of  his  own  indomitable  will;  through  his  writ- 
ing; and  by  his  conspicuous  example  Edward  Judson, 
perhaps  more  than  any  other  man,  helped  to  check  the 
rout  of  the  Christian  church  from  America's  greatest 
storm-centers,  the  down-town  city  fields.  He  led  the 
church  from  a  disgraceful  defensive  into  an  aggressive 
offensive.  The  inspiration  of  his  example  has  gone  out 
from  lower  New  York  to  every  city  and  town  where 
similar  conditions  are  confronted;  w^here,  because  of  the 
flux  of  the  population,  the  inflow  of  foreigners,  the  out- 
flow of  the  older  American  stock,  the  congestion  of  busi- 
ness and  multiplication  of  pleasure  resorts,  the  church 
has  found  itself  bereft  of  support  and  outside  of  the 
sympathies  of  the  people  who  jostle  past  its  doors.  He 
struck  telling  blows  where  blows  had  been  hectic. 

The  impact  of  these  blows  was  widely  felt.  President 
Faunce,  of  Brown  University,  in  a  letter  to  Doctor  Jud- 
son, once  said : 

The  work  you  have  accomplished  is  in  no  way  to  be  measured 
by  the  work  within  the  walls  of  your  church.  You  have  set 
an  ideal  for  hundreds  of  young  ministers;  you  have  helped 
them  to  rise  above  the  tendency  to  seek  charming  suburban 
pastorates ;  and  have  made  them  ambitious  to  stand  on  the  firing- 
line.  The  influence  of  your  work  in  New  York  has  been  felt 
in  every  city  and  town  in  the  country. 

The  Rev.  William  M.  Lawrence  once  wrote  him: 

I  want  to  put  here  on  paper  what  I  have  said  to  you  fre- 
quently and  to  your  family.  I  regard  the  work  you  have  done 
as  the  greatest  that  has  been  done  in  our  country  for  our  de- 
nomination by  any  man.  Absolutely  unselfish  in  its  initiation, 
characterized  by  self-denial,  wisdom,  wonderful  patience,  mingled 
with  gentleness  and  courtesy  and  consideration,  you  deser^^e  to 
succeed,  and  if  you  had  failed,  the  disappointment  would  have 
been  yours,  but  the  disgrace  would  have  been  the  denomination's. 

He  was  one  of  the  first  men  of  outstanding  ability  to 
attract   the   attention   of   the   church    to   the  neglected 


148  EDWARD  JUDSON,   INTERPRETER  OF  GOD 

down-town  city  communities.  By  the  gift  of  himself  as 
by  the  quahty  of  his  service,  he  dignified  the  task  of  city 
missions.  He  prepared  the  way  for  the  Christian  church, 
especially  for  churches  located  in  communities  where 
there  has  been  no  preparation  for  the  gospel  through  quiet 
personal  influence  of  Christian  friends  and  neighbors,  to 
use  every  opportunity  for  sympathetic  personal  contact 
in  the  profound  faith  that  there  is  a  contagion  of  god- 
liness. He  taught  the  church  to  recognize  that  holy 
living  begets  holy  living,  that  there  is  an  incarnation  to- 
day, and  that  only  through  it  can  God  in  Christ  be  made 
intelligible  or  the  lives  of  men  redeemed.  By  his  example 
and  by  his  teaching  he  led  the  church  to  multiply  its 
points  of  contact,  through  social,  educational,  and  be- 
nevolent ministry,  to  bring  Christian  men  and  women 
into  daily  touch  with  needy  lives.  In  all  this  he  saw  that 
the  reliance  of  the  church  is  not  upon  method,  but  upon 
the  power  of  God  working  through  Christian  men  and 
women;  that  to  the  degree  that  an  individual  worker  is 
the  incarnation  of  his  Master  will  he  succeed  and  the 
church  in  which  he  works  be  a  power.  In  this  manner 
may  a  church,  and  may  a  Christian  worker,  become  an 
interpreter  of  God. 

Though  a  scholar,  and  with  the  scholarly  determining 
the  main  current  of  his  life;  though  a  teacher,  and  with 
the  persistence  of  the  teacher  governing  all  that  he  did; 
though  a  preacher  of  rare  ability  and  finding  his  deepest 
joy  in  his  pulpit,  he  made  his  greatest  contribution  as  a 
prophet  of  the  social  mission  of  the  church  and  as 
an  interpreter  of  God  to  the  downtrodden  and  neglected 
in  the  congested  quarters  of  America's  greatest  city, 
where  for  thirty-three  years  he  bore  the  "  burden  and  the 
heat  of  the  long  day,"  nor  wished  "  it  were  done."  It 
was  there  that  he  lived  the  most  significant  years  of  his 
life. 


INTERPRETER   OF    GOD  149 

At  wedding-feasts  in  humble  homes  he  became  the  in- 
carnation of  joy ;  at  the  cradle  of  a  household's  new  hope 
he  incarnated  faith  in  a  life  abundant;  in  the  first  taste 
of  sorrow  he  incarnated  the  divine  compassion;  in  a 
young  man's  struggle  for  life  preparation  against  bitter 
odds  he  incarnated  resolution  and  fixity  of  purpose;  in 
the  pinch  of  poverty  he  brought  succor  to  weakened 
bodies  and  courage  to  impoverished  souls ;  in  sickness  that 
had  become  embittered  by  want  and  terrified  by  the  help- 
lessness of  dependent  loved  ones  he  became  the  embodi- 
ment of  human  sympathy  and  divine  solicitude ;  and  in 
the  hour  of  death  his  hand  became  the  compassionate, 
guiding  hand  of  the  Master;  for  he  was  an  interpreter 
of  God, 

It  was  his  opportunity  to  live  where  "  voice  and  vision 
came  no  more  " ;  where  thousands  had  known  no  life  in 
w^hich  the  spirit  of  Christ  was  incarnate;  where  the 
church  had  become  a  memory  or  a  mockery ;  where  men 
endured  the  dull  pain  of  sorrow  nor  dreamed  that  there 
could  be  a  cure ;  where  some  souls  were  sullen  and  others 
sodden.  In  such  a  community,  this  man  of  regal  rights, 
the  culmination  of  generations  of  culture,  the  finished 
product  of  the  schools,  the  incarnation  of  sympathetic  un- 
derstanding, the  embodiment  of  gentleness  and  strength, 
came  to  live.  For  once  the  church,  despite  her  reluctance, 
gave  her  best  to  the  neediest. 

When  Edward  Judson  gave  up  his  attractive  North 
Orange  Church  and  became  pastor  of  a  struggling  down- 
town mission  interest,  men  said.  Why  should  this  man 
of  exceptional  power  give  himself  to  such  a  work?  Why 
this  waste?  When  for  thirty-three  years  he  held  to  his 
task,  though  called  to  the  presidency  of  colleges,  sought 
by  strong  churches,  and  lured  by  professorships,  men  said. 
Why  this  waste?  When  the  heavy  burdens  began  to 
break  his  rugged  physical  nature,  and  he  began  to  die  a 


150  EDWARD   JUDSON,    INTERPRETER   OF   GOD 

slow  death — a  death  mercifully  sudden  in  the  end — men 
said,  Why  this  waste?  When  that  incarnate  life  became 
celestial,  humble  folks  came  to  pay  their  tribute  of  ap- 
preciation and  of  love — the  rich,  the  learned,  the  cul- 
tured, the  influential,  were  there,  because  they  too  loved 
him — but  in  greater  numbers  the  poor  and  the  ignorant, 
those  without  standing  or  influence,  Americans,  Italians, 
Negroes ;  a  poor  woman,  whose  husband  had  deserted  her 
and  her  helpless  children ;  a  woman  who  had  had  a  life- 
long struggle  with  poverty,  yet  had  kept  herself  pure  and 
her  soul  sweet,  and  whose  children  and  neighbors  called 
her  blessed;  an  illiterate  truck-driver  who,  in  the  midst 
of  his  dull  routine,  had  found  life  joyous;  an  Italian,  in 
whose  heart  hate  that  had  prompted  to  murder  had  given 
place  to  light,  life,  and  love;  a  great  company  of  those 
who  had  found  in  him  their  only  hiding-place  from  the 
wind,  their  only  covert  from  the  tempest,  their  only 
shadow  of  a  great  rock  in  a  weary  land.  When  all  these 
met  in  that  churchly  structure,  an  expression  of  the  art 
of  masters  and  of  the  soul  of  a  social  prophet,  a  landmark 
that  those  hands,  now  still,  had  reared,  no  one  asked, 
Why  this  waste?  To  the  people  he  was  an  interpreter 
of  God. 

It  shall  be 
A  Face  like  my  face  that  receives  thee ;  a  Man  like  to  me, 
Thou  shalt  love  and  be  loved  by,  forever:  a  Hand  like  this  hand 
Shall  throw  open  the  gates  of  new  life  to  thee ! 

See  the  Christ  stand !  — Browning. 


DATE  DUE 

MrnH 

mm^ 

OAYLORO 

fHINTEDIMU.t    A. 

